bleach manga and more

I guess I’m beginning to enjoy the Bleach manga more than I did before, because for once, the Soul Reapers have the clear upper hand. In 358 Captain Hitsguaya revealed that he had one last (implied) trick up his sleeve, and that seemed to surprise Halibel to a considerable extent, because her eyes widened: something that one doesn’t expect on someone as impassive as she appears to be. In the meantime, Soifon and Omaeda seemed to be facing quite a lot of trouble dealing with Barragan, who was playing around with them as though they were toys and what not. Soifon said that she had a plan or something in mind, and made Omaeda act as the decoy to keep Barragan occupied until she finished preparing whatever it was that her plan involved, because, she said, it needed time. I probably sound like I’m summarizing the chapter here, but whatever. Anyway, the chapter ends with Halibel’s eyes widening, or something like that. The next one week seemed to fly and I was almost incredulous when I realized that today was Friday. Now to 359. When it began with the Kyoraku-Stark scene, I expected it to develop along those lines and probably reveal some of Kyoraku’s special abilities and such. But Stark sorta spotted something in the sky and went, “What the hell is that?” and the scene went back to the Halibel-Hitsugaya thing. The thing in question, which occasioned Stark such uncharacteristic apprehension, or so I thought his facial expression seemed to convey, happened to be the attack that Hitsugaya had up his sleeve and was reluctant to use because he was cognizant of the fact that his powers hadn’t developed fully and was unsure if he was capable of controlling the attack and protecting the others from what was implied to be its super destructive effects. Throughout he had this air of the one in control of things and Halibel betrayed a hell of a lot of surprise through the whole wide-eyes cliché—something one could see whenever Halibel was shown. So back to Hitsugaya’s attack: This gaping-mouth-like thing appears in the sky—or maybe in a bunch of dark clouds that gathers: I don’t know—and this avalance-like thing falls through it. Apparently whoever touches the snow has these snow flowers bloom on them, and once 100 of them have bloomed, the person dies. Halibel attempts to turn the snow into water. The flowers bloom on her. We don’t know what happens to Halibel, though all the flowers are shown to have bloomed, because at the critical moment, Omaeda, the big fat fool, attracts all the attention by remarking that the huge mountain of ice, which was the pile of snow flowers, was probably Hitsugaya’s, only he sort of asked himself out loud (“Isn’t that Captain Hitsugaya’s?”). Barragan meanwhile was playing according to plan and had fallen for the whole Omaeda-decoy thing, and in the end of the chapter, Soifon is shown to be standing next to the building, which is wrapped in the same bandage-like thing that Yoruichi always carries around and uses for defense and stuff, and she says, “Bankai.” So finally we get to see a new Bankai.

Today happened to be Bring Your Child To Work Day for my dad’s office, and although I wouldn’t prefer to be classified as a child (Turning 16 in July), I went there. And so did my other friends. We spent the greater part of our time kind of running away from this particularly annoying and nerdy kid who likes throwing his weight around and showing the world how much he knows. Call me mean, but I found the whole thing fun, and I think he deserved it. He’s not only nerdy but also arrogant to the point of conspicuously avoiding those who in his opinion are ‘lesser people’, when the lesser people in question grew up with him in Seattle. That whole thing really pissed me off, and my best friend, too, so we along with our brothers and my other good friend and her brother, and another friend, had a lot of fun making the nerd feel, uh, left out. I mean, it is kinda complicated, but despite his aversion to the so-called lesser people, when his own kin are not there, he seeks their company. The funniest part is that, according to the best friend, the nerd thinks of me as ‘not’ a lesser person, and therefore doesn’t mind my company. That translates to running away from him being even more fun.

And now I’m at home and awaiting a certain disaster in the form of a physics tutor to befall me, because, according to my dad, my laziness with regard to studies warrants a ‘push’ in the right direction that at this level can only be provided by a professional tutor, and in addition to physics, I’m going to be professionally tutored in math and chemistry. What a disaster. I mean I’ve already met my math tutor, and I didn’t find him as vapid as I expected him to be, and am glad that he’s not going to be coming home more than thrice a week and his classes are not going to last more than an hour, but still. The indignity of being tutored simply because you lack the commitment to study as much as you’re supposed to . . . .