Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ The String ❯ Video Games and Dancin' Music ( Chapter 6 )

A/N: Okay, I know nothing about the Japanese culture when it comes to entertainment, so in this chapter I said, 'Screw it. They have an N64 and American music!' I apologize for the obvious lack of intelligence going on in this story.

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Six: Video Games and Dancin' Music

 

Soon it had been decided that Renji and Ichigo would go first and Mizuiro would play winner with Keigo after that. Nobody else called dibbs after these decisions had been made so they would just go up against whomever they felt like. Rukia made it a point that she would go last. Obviously she was confident in her ability to beat everybody.

 

About twenty, or so, minutes later Uryu was up against Mizuiro. Uryu was pretty sure he could win as he had now seen Mizuiro play against Keigo and Renji and had plenty of time to figure out his battle plan. It wasn't hard to decipher. Mizuiro simply ran around weaving in and out of laid traps, dodging shells and shooting his own at opponents. All Uryu had to do was head him off and attack him or lay traps where Mizuiro was likely to run into them.

 

The game started and Uryu sped off into a question box, getting himself three red shells. Three minutes later Uryu still had three blue balloons (he had chosen Toad) and a green shell. Mizuiro had one green balloon (he had chosen Yoshi) and a banana. Uryu inwardly smiled and raced toward the dinosaur simulation. He made one good shot, hitting its go-kart with the shell, causing Yoshi's car to tumble over and the match ended.

 

On the screen showed two boxes. One had Toad in it saying 'I'm the best!' and in the other one, Yoshi was crying. Uryu went on to battle Chad (that was the quietest battle he's had in a while), and Tatsuki, who was victorious. He and Tatsuki had been tied with one balloon each and they both had a red shell. Unfortunately Uryu released his a fraction of a second after Tatsuki did, resulting in his demise.

 

Ichigo was very surprised at him. Uryu had played very well. Who knew Uryu played video games? This guy was full of surprises. First Orihime (which Ichigo would probably tease him about later) and now this? Uryu was the biggest nerd in school (he picked a lock with a needle out of his travel sewing kit for God's sake!!!), but Ichigo now realized that he was actually very kinda cool. He'd never thought Uryu was lame or weird of course. He couldn't have even if he wanted to (and he'd wanted to a few times) due to the fact that he had no room to talk. Ichigo had never really been especially popular and never really had many friends before this whole Shinigami situation.

 

Anyway, the point was that that as much as people thought Uryu was nerdy or un-cool or whatever, they were probably right, but that's also partly what made Uryu cool in his own little way. He knew he was a nerd and he was good at it. He'd never wanted to be popular and to be painfully honest; Ichigo thought he'd be the crappiest popular kid in the history of ever. Ichigo was embarrassed of him to even think about it. Uryu was interesting and smart and it was a wonder he'd never had friends before Ichigo and the others came along.

 

Three matches later Rukia had beaten Tatsuki, making Rukia the champion. This was somewhat surprising to Renji. He'd looked as though his brain was getting ready to fall out again. Rukia was simply giggling at him and it was very obvious that she was happy she'd won.

 

"Hey you guys," Tatsuki, said, "Do you want some cake? My mom made it."

 

Everybody kinda mumbled things like 'Yeah, sounds like a good idea…' and 'Sure, I don't care…' and 'What kinda cake is it?' and lastly 'What is cake?' This embarrassing question came from none other than Renji, who was the newest to the real world. Everybody looked at him weird until he got uncomfortable enough that he said defensively, "What? They don't have cake in Soul Society!!!" Rukia piped up that it as really good and he was going to love it.

 

Tatsuki, Keigo, and Mizuiro were still looking at him weird and then he realized what he'd said. Of course!!! They weren't supposed to know about Shinigami and Soul Society! How could he have let that slip? How was he going to get out of this one? Then he heard Orihime speak and he knew he was saved.

 

"So how 'bout that cake?" Orihime asked.

 

Within four minutes or so they were all back in the living room, each with half a piece or less of cake on their small plates. Renji was almost in heaven. Or what humans envisioned as heaven at least. He pretty much lived in heaven and this was not it. This was about three hundred million times better than heaven. It was chocolate cake with icing and sprinkles. With it he had a small glass of milk to wash it down with. Renji didn't like milk too much. He never had. Never in his memory could he recall a time when he had actually drunk milk because he liked it. He just thought it was good to wash down thick or heavy foods with and he was right. In his opinion, that's exactly what milk was made for.

 

When they had all finished their cake and stacked their dishes in the sink, Tatsuki walked over to the stereo and pushed a button. Three pushed buttons later the group was standing in a loud rambunctious display of musical humor.

 

"What's this?" Ichigo asked. "I'm sure I've heard it before."

 

"This is Weird Al, my friend," Tatsuki answered.

 

After a few seconds of synthesizer music, the lyrics 'They see me mowin', my front lawn,' drifted into their ears. Uryu knew what song this was and it was actually pretty funny. In fact, he thought most of the Weird Al songs were funny. Uryu stood and listened to the lyrics for a few seconds.

 

'I know they're all thinkin' I'm so white n' nerdy'

'Think I'm just too white n' nerdy'

'Think I'm just too white n' nerdy'

'Can't you see I'm white n' nerdy'

'Look at me I'm white n' nerdy'

 

This was the chorus and as such was repeated after every verse. Uryu looked at the others and found that Orihime, Tatsuki, Yoruichi, Rukia and Keigo had formed some sort of ridiculous dance which consisted of various hand movements, spins and dance steps.

 

Apparently the girls had come up with this routine and gone over it just for fun at slumber parties, after school visits or other such encounters and now Keigo had decided to learn it. The girls, Uryu had to admit, looked very cool as they were in perfect sync with each other and seemed to be enjoying this performance very much. The rest of the party guests (Ichigo, Renji, Mizuiro and Chad) just looked on.

 

Uryu saw Renji's face and almost laughed himself to death, but felt that he must refrain, due to the fact that if he bugged Renji, it would probably only make things harder on himself. Renji's face was that of undeniable perplexity and Uryu knew he was more than likely confused about where the music was coming from, why Rukia seemed to know what was going on and why this sudden explosion of noise coming from nowhere didn't seem to faze her. Uryu felt sure that if Renji's brain were not trapped within his skull it would have been rolling around on the floor for the third or fourth time that day.

 

The Quincy stifled a laugh and continued to watch the girls dance while Keigo made a fool of himself. Uryu then decided to start having some fun with the song. He started singing the words loud enough for the others to hear. Even Ichigo didn't know this song. He would be able to hold this one against the substitute Shinigami if he bugged him about some unknown thing. Today, at this party, Uryu Ishida was cooler than Ichigo Kurosaki.

 

'I wanna bowl with, the gangstas'

'But, oh well, it's obvious I'm white n' nerdy'

 

Less than ten seconds later the song ended with the words 'Look at me, I'm white n' nerdy'.

 

The girls stopped moving in perfect unison and then spread out across the room to sit down in various places and do other things.

 

Yoruichi went to get some more soda and Tatsuki went for more cake. Orihime smiled brightly and Rukia just sat down. The boys didn't really know what to do so they simultaneously started voicing their opinions on how cool they all thought the girls looked and told them they should be in a music video, or do that for a talent show or something. Keigo was hopping up and down talking about God only knows what… The girls just politely thanked them and Tatsuki set the CD player to a different track.

 

"Now this CD is a mix that Orihime-chan and I put together so all the songs aren't by the same people," Tatsuki said. Uryu didn't know why Tatsuki had said this. After the first few seconds of each song it would have become apparent that it wasn't all the same band.

 

A second later the song started to play and anyone who knew it (Tatsuki, Orihime, Yoruichi, Keigo and to everyone's enormous surprise Chad of all people) started to sing along with it.

 

'One Saturday I took a walk to Zipperhead

I met a girl there

And she almost knocked me dead

Punk Rock girl please look at me

Punk rock girl what to you see?

Let's travel 'round the world

Just you and me punk rock girl'

 

The words were sung very loudly and obnoxiously in a horrible nasally voice that had absolutely no musical value to it. Uryu had no idea how it could even have been possible that this band had as much as song published. There was no way this was sung anywhere outside of a garage in someone's house. The noise was simply appalling.

 

As Uryu listened to the lyrics of the song rather than the musical feature of it he realized why the song had been successful. It was somewhat entertaining. As the second verse elapsed and the third came upon them Uryu listened as the nasally obnoxious voice shouted,

 

'We went to Phillie Pizza Company

And ordered some hot tea

The waitress said "Well no

We only have it iced"

So we jumped up on the table

And shouted "anarchy"

And someone played a Beach Boy's song

On the jukebox

It was 'California Dreamin'

And so we started screamin'

"On such a winter's day"'

 

The rest of the song went on in much the same way and ended in the words 'Just you and me punk rock girl!'

 

 

Uryu was almost relieved that it had stopped. It made no sense to him why someone would have written that song unless they were going crazy from being in their house too long. A few songs later another one came on that Uryu actually knew. It came on with a nice guitar solo and a something that sounded like it could have been a violin part in the background. Then Orihime stated loud enough to be heard over the music in a sort of apologetic tone, "Oops! I forgot this song was on here!"

 

"It's okay. We all need to calm down anyway," Ichigo said and everybody looked pointedly at Keigo who was literally bumping his head on the ceiling and if it were humanly possible would have been bouncing off the walls in a certain destructive manner.

 

The songs first lyrics filled the room and Uryu heard the words,

 

'It's amazing how you can speak right to my heart,

Without sayin' a word you can light up the dark,

Try as I may, I could never explain

What I hear when you don't say a thing,'

 

He mustered up all the courage he could and managed to stammer out the words, "Ehem… Er… Inoue-chan?" 'Inoue-chan? What are you thinking you idiot? Since when is it okay to call her -chan?' his head screamed at him.

 

"Yes Ishida-kun?" she asked sweetly in her lovely soprano voice.

 

Uryu continued hesitantly, "Er… um… May I have this dance?"

 

His hands were actually sweating. 'Damn! Why is this so hard??? It really shouldn't be! It's just a string of words!' This is what he was shouting at himself as he waited in suspense for her answer.

 

"Hm? Um… Well okay, sure!"

 

Uryu stood there for a second, her words echoing in his mind. She said yes? Wait, he asked a girl to dance and she said yes? How could that be possible? Then it hit him. He asked a girl to dance?

 

'Well duh, you asked a girl to dance stupid! What else would you ask? A monkey?' This was the taunting voice echoing through his head again. He promptly snapped at it to shut up and got back to his moment of happiness.

 

He had not only asked a girl to dance and she had said yes, but he had asked the beautiful, smart, goddess of a girl that he'd had a crush on for what felt like forever to dance and she'd said yes.

 

'Hello! Do you not notice that while you're standing here thinking, she's standing there waiting???'

 

God, why did that voice always have to be right? Uryu came back to real world and looked at Orihime. He hesitantly started to move towards her and as she made no sign that she disapproved of this action he felt a small amount of confidence build inside him and he softly placed his hands on her hips for the second time that day, while suddenly feeling her hands on his shoulders. He felt her start to sway and lead him to turn slowly around in circles. He imitated the motion, clumsily at first but gradually got the hang of it.

 

Suddenly he noticed hat Orihime was quite amused and as he looked at her face he saw that her eyes shone brightly and a small smile was on her beautifully shaped lips.

 

'The smile on your face lets me know that you need me

There's a truth in your eyes sayin' you'll never leave me

The touch of your hand says you'll catch me if ever I fall

You say it best when you say nothing at all'

 

"You really haven't done this much have you?" she asked.

 

Uryu decided this was a good opportunity to give her a small and somewhat flirtatious compliment, so he replied with, "Well, actually this is my first time and, if I may say so, I'm happy I get to share it with such a beautiful person."

 

He could see her blush slightly. Wow. If she blushed at that, how much had he blushed in the closet? Now that was a thought.

 

"You really shouldn't say that unless you mean it Ishida-kun."

 

How could she say that? Shouldn't she have known by now??? He did mean it dammit! Maybe she was just in denial. "Inoue-chan, have I ever been known to lie?"

 

He saw her face light up with understanding about half a second after he said this. "Ishida-kun, I know you hear what all the boys say about me…"

 

Oh, so she wanted to know what people really thought of her. She wanted to know how the boys talked about her when she wasn't around and what they all said about her. She wanted to know if boys actually liked her. Uryu didn't really know what to say. He didn't want to tell her what most boys really saw her for because it would probably upset her and, more importantly, he didn't want to say it because it would make him uncomfortable. It was certainly undeniable that everybody thought she was… well hot. One of the first things people noticed about her was her hair for being not only long, but also such a stunning color. The other was, of course, her chest.

 

"Well mostly they all just think you're pretty. They know you're nice and smart too, but the truth is they just never take the chance to get to know you. Mostly, they just know about you…" He tried to say this as delicately as he could. She smiled at him and her eyes glimmered with understanding.

 

By this point Uryu had nearly gotten the hang of the dancing situation and felt confident to glance around the room. He had to know what everybody else was doing. He soon got his answer. It seemed as if everyone was dancing too. Ichigo was with Tatsuki. 'Well it looks like she's gonna find out if she still likes Ichigo or not,' he thought.

 

Rukia was with Renji. 'Finally!!!' This was comment was made in a celebratory tone.

 

Yoruichi was with Mizuiro. Uryu figured this was probably just so he wouldn't be left out and Yoruichi didn't want to dance with Keigo. Chad apparently didn't want to dance with anyone. As a result Chad was stuck having to endure Keigo's eternal chatter. Poor guy…

 

Uryu reverted his attention back to his own dance and was almost immediately trapped in Orihime's large, soft dark grey eyes. To him they seemed to shine with all the kindness of the world and hold all the goodness of her heart behind them. He saw pain in those eyes. He knew what she had been through, but along with that pain, he saw a healed heart. He saw a sensitive person and a good soul. At about this time Uryu knew that he was surely about to die of the cheesiness those words contained and yet he couldn't, due to the fact that he knew it was all true. God, why was this so hard??? Why did Orihime have to be such a good person? Why did she have to make him act weirder than he already did? Why was she so… perfect?

 

Uryu took a deep breath and tried to let off some unneeded energy. He heard more lyrics floating through the atmosphere and recognized that the song must have been nearly over because the third verse had just ended and the song was now going on the chorus again.

 

''The smile on your face lets me know that you need me…'

 

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