91 – Reina Meets The Cast
Masaki coughed awkwardly. "Ah right. Well it looks like you already met Jinta-kun, Ururu-chan, and Tessai-san," she said pointing at the three that had lead Reina there.
Reina nodded. "Well they didn't introduce themselves, but I figured out Jinta-kun and Ururu-chan's names already. I hadn't been introduced to Tessai-san yet though," she explained.
The large muscular man, Tessai, hummed in agreement while nodding.
Masaki smiled. "Now more important. This handsome boy is my son," she said dragging Ichigo over to Reina.
Ichigo deadpanned. "Oh now you have positive things to say about me," he grumbled.
Masaki simply ignored his grumbling though. "Ichigo, this is Reina. She has been one of the ones taking care of me. It might have been a rough start, but we're practically best friends now," she said with a wide smile.
Reina smiled, touched by Masaki's words. Masaki wasn't the only one that felt that way since she had long become Reina's best friend too after all. Living together for so many years the only results really can be either despising each other or growing genuine love and care for them.
She smiled at Ichigo. "Hi, I'm Reina. We might not have met before, but your mother can't stop talking about you so it doesn't feel like a first meeting," she said with a chuckle.
Masaki blushed a little. "I don't talk about him ALL the time," she said in embarrassment, trying to defend herself.
Ichigo seemed to be the most embarrassed out of all of them, not used to being talked about in such a way. It didn't help that Reina was a very attractive young woman. He wouldn't admit whether she looked better than Orihime.
As if some type of sixth sense was activated Orihime quickly came up interrupting them and bowed politely. "Hi, I'm Inoue Orihime. Ichigo's best friend." she said.
Reina chuckled watching the young girl. Even if Ichigo was too dense to see what was going on she definitely wasn't. Not that it mattered though since she wasn't interested in the boy. Not only was he too young, but he was even her best friend's son. That would be a recipe for disaster.
"It's a delight to meet you," she said.
Orihime blushed, it was like punching a pillow. There was no resistance making her feel awkward at her worries. "N-nice to meet you too," she said meekly.
Masaki looked at Orihime with a raised brow. "Friends?" she asked.
Orihime blushed and looked away. She wasn't used to being treated like that and for the longest time she had made no progress in her relationship with the dense Ichigo. That was changing ever since his mother came back into the picture though as she kept pushing for her to become her daughter-in-law.
Masaki snorted at the girl trying to act ignorant, but decided to let her off for now instead moving on to a strait-laced boy with chin length black hair parted down the centre. He was wearing a school outfit comprised of tan slacks and a white shirt with a blue and mustard diagonal striped tie. He wore a slim pair of glasses.
"This is another of Ichigo's friends, Ishida Uryū," Masaki said.
Ishida pushed up his glasses and nodded politely. "Nice to meet you," he said flatly.
Reina nodded back hesitantly. "H-hi," she said awkwardly not knowing how to return his natural deadpan energy.
"Don't mind him, that's just how his personality is," Masaki said without care for Ishida's feelings.
Urahara smirked. "Leaving the best for last?" he asked playfully.
Masaki rolled her eyes. "And this is Urahara Kisuke. Don't be fooled though. This old man is much older than he looks," she said with a smirk as she called him out.
Kisuke grabbed at his heart dramatically. "How could you?" he asked. The smirk tugging at his lips was enough to give him away.
He picked up the black cat. "Anyway. This is Yoruichi," he continued.
Before Reina could react the cat spoke in a deep voice. "Hello. As he said, I'm Yoruichi."
Reina looked at the cat in surprise. Despite knowing about Hollow seeing a talking cat was something entirely new. At least now she was sure the cat had rolled its eyes at Urahara before. It was definitely smart enough for that.
Urahara looked at Reina with interest. "I hear you have an interesting power," he said.
"Leave the poor girl alone," Masaki warned him.
He raised his hands in surrender, but Reina wasn't sure he. had actually given up from his smile.
Yoruichi jumped down from Urahara's grasp and walked around Reina as if inspecting her. Reina had a conflicted expression as she kind of wanted to pet the cat, but wasn't sure if talking cats appreciated that kind of thing.
The cat hummed as if considering something before walking away.
Reina still looked a little confused, but shrugged it off.
"The only one missing right now is Chad, Ichigo's only other friend. He doesn't have very many due to his personality," Masaki said.
Ichigo looked offended. "I have friends!" he argued.
Masaki smiled. "I have yet to meet any," she said continuing to tease her son.
All Ichigo could do was grit his teeth and bear it.
Rein shook her head. "So... anyway... what did I interrupt?" she asked out of curiosity.
Masaki's smile grew even wider. "Nothing much. Just some more training. Ishida-kun here did something reckless and lost his Quincy powers so we are working on fixing that. Meanwhile I have been training Ichigo at the same time since things should never have gotten to that point in the first place. If only his mother had been around to correct him," she sighed with a hand on her cheek.
Ichigo snorted while looking away from her. "I was doing just fi...." he started saying.
Masaki glared at him quickly shutting him up causing a mirthful chuckle to escape Reina's lips only embarrassing Ichigo even further.
Reina rolled her eyes at the two, but understood the two had a lot of time to make up for so it was good to see their relationship was still good.