A/N: Alright, here's some facts: I started watching BLEACH again while I was at my dad's this summer. I finished the series, 'cause apparently it's over/taking a break until Kubo finishes the last arc/whatever other theories are out there. I became sad. I've been watching BLEACH for the last three years now, and it's ending almost made me cry. Not to mention the fact that the ending made you WANT more episodes with a passion. Anyway, I restarted the series and thought, "Why not write a fanfic?" This is the second fan-fiction I've had high hopes for, the only one I think will actually make it onto the site. If it doesn't, well then you won't be reading it. But I hope it will. I apologize in advance for any OOC-ness. Constructive criticism is welcome, and so are flames. Spending time in flames either makes one hot, fireproof, or dead. I wanna see which way I go.
Unless Tite Kubo sent me an e-mail that I haven't read, I don't own BLEACH. Nor do I own anything else you may recognize. This story and all OC's in it are MINE (a.k.a. copyright to the author). Do not redistribute without my permission. If you have a problem with that, I have a lawyer.
"Ichigo! Get up, fool! If you're late for another Captains' Meeting, I'll make your life hell!"
Ah, geez. Mom's at it again . . .
Raedon Kurosaki woke up, once again, to the sound of his mother, Rukia, yelling at her husband. He yawned, rolled over, and tried to go back to sleep. Unfortunately . . .
"Raedon! Gallus! You two get up, too! The Shinigami Academy isn't going to come to you!"
Gallus rolled over, hopped out of bed, and walked out.
How he wakes up so easily is beyond me . . . Raedon thought. Oh, well. If I don't get up, Mom's gonna . . .
At that exact moment, the petite woman threw the door open.
"Raedon. Get up." Raedon jumped up and practically ran out of the room.
Why is she so much scarier when she doesn't yell? he wondered. He started getting ready, somehow finishing before his neat-freak brother, and sat down in the kitchen to wait for him. He watched his little sisters, Masaki and Hisana, scarf down their breakfast and dash out the door. They were three and five years younger than the twins, respectively, and were therefore in a lower class at the Academy. The lower classes started sooner, in the hopes that they could drill punctuality into the students by making them get up an hour earlier.
Gallus finally finished getting ready, and the twins walked quickly out the door.
Ten hours later, the twins and their sisters walked slowly back home. Raedon had once again defeated everyone in his zanpakuto training class, Gallus had wiped the floor with the kido class for the umpteenth time in a row, and the girls had . . . er . . . done whatever the girls did at school. Gallus never asked, so he never knew. It wasn't that he didn't care about the girls, he just figured that they'd tell him if he needed to know. Or if they felt like bragging. They completely opened up to Raedon, for some reason. They said he was "more fun." Gallus sighed.
Ichigo sat on the front porch with Rukia, watching as his kids walked home from school.
My kids . . . It's still hard to believe I'm a dad, and Raedon and Gallus are eighteen now! He watched as Masaki, the only one of his kids to inherit his orange hair, slapped her dark-haired older brother on the back of the head. Raedon almost fell to the ground, and Ichigo laughed.
"She's just like her mother, so abusi-" Ichigo was cut off as Rukia slapped the back of his head.
"Shut up, Strawberry."
"Love you, too, Midget." He laughed again as Masaki and Raedon started wrestling on the path to the house, with Gallus trying to separate them. Unfortunately for the blonde (And where the hell did he get that hair from, anyway? Recessive gene? Ichigo wondered), the rowdy teens had no intention of stopping their fight, and he just ended up landing on his butt. Hisana, the only one not involved in the fight at this point, greeted her parents as she approached the porch.
"What started this one, Hisana?"
"Raedon called her a midget. Again." Ichigo turned to Rukia.
"Like I said, she's just like you! Even has your height complex!" This earned him another blow to the head.
"Mom, Dad, I'm going out now! I'm meeting Hanako for some zanpakuto practice!" Raedon called as he walked out the door.
"Who's Hanako?" Rukia asked.
"Shuhei and Rangiku's daughter. I'm surprised you don't know her." Ichigo replies.
"Wait . . . Is our son going on a date?" Rukia asked, a stunned look on her face.
"I know! I was shocked, too! He almost had me convinced he was gay or something!"
"I'M STILL ON THE PORCH, YOU JERKS!"
"There you are, Kurosaki! I thought you'd never show up!" Raedon heard as he walked into the underground training area. His parents said it had once belonged to a shopkeeper who lived in the Living World.
"Zip it, Abarai! Mom and Dad are apparently amazed that Hanako agreed to help me train, they kept me at the house for half an hour to give me "the Talk."
Renji Abarai, Jr., cringed. "Dude . . . T.M.I. I did not want to hear that."
Hanako laughed, nearly doubling over. "They thought we were dating? Are you sure your parents aren't insane?"
Raedon sighed, slightly hurt. "No, I know they're insane. Although I'm sure there are worse things in this world than dating you. I could fall into a tar pit, for instance."
"Oh, ha ha. Admit it: you fantasize about me."
"I DO NOT!"
"Oh, you totally do!"
"You two argue like a married couple."
"Oh! Sosuke! I didn't know you were here!"
Sosuke Hitsugaya sighed. "And I had to give myself away . . . "
"Shoulda stayed quiet, dude." Renji said. It was a widely known fact that, like her mother had his father, Hanako drove Sosuke insane. It had been like that for as long as any of them could remember.
"So . . . Who am I sparring with first?" Raedon asked, trying to break the tension.
"I'll fight you, Kurosaki, if it means getting away from Hisagi."
"Good, then! Come on."
Raedon and Sosuke stood on opposing pillars in the training ground.
"Let's get started!" Raedon yelled out. He held out his zanpakuto. "Blast apart, Tsuinboruto!"
His zanpakuto split in two, each becoming wider and ending in a wickedly barbed head.
"We're releasing Shikai already? OK, then. Rule the frozen earth, Tsuyakeshi Tori!" Sosuke called. Another blade extended from the hilt of his zanpakuto, which had extended to allow for two hands. The end result was a blade-staff with the blades curving in opposite directions. "Here I come."
Raedon moved at the same time Sosuke did. All that the others were able to see was that the combatants had swapped places, and that Sosuke had somehow managed to cut Raedon's shoulder, and Raedon Sosuke's cheek. Then the two shunpo'd towards each other once again, this time stopping in mid air, swords clashing too quickly to follow. They separated again, each gasping for breath.
Raedon held up both of his blades. "Futago no Inazuma!" he yelled, bringing his arms down across his body, sending an X-shaped blast of lightning towards his opponent.
Sosuke leapt over it, only to see another two blasts, these looking eerily similar to Captain Kurosaki's Getuga Tensho, flying towards him.
"Sutorobo ReitÅ," Sosuke said calmly as he began to twirl his zanpakuto in front of him. A large white beam flashed out of his staff-sword, freezing the electricity (A/N I honestly don't know if that's possible, but it sounds bad-ass, no?) in midair. The now-solidified crescents fell to the ground and shattered. The beam didn't stop at the point of impact, and if Raedon hadn't shunpo'd to the left as quickly as he could, he'd have been completely frozen.
"Sosuke! You trying to kill me?" Raedon yelled.
"I knew you'd dodge. Besides, you're going all out, why can't I?"
"I held back, jackass! Those are the wimpiest Inazumas I've launched in months!"
"Sutorobo Reito."
"Gyaaaaaah!" Raedon cried out as he leapt to the side, again narrowly avoiding the blast of freezing energy.
The battle had ended up lasting for three hours and, as with any duel between Raedon and Sosuke, there was no clear winner. Renji had healed all of the combatants' wounds (thankfully he was better at kido than his father was) then he and Hanako had fought, then everyone went home.
Gallus lay in bed, having sensed both battles and their outcomes from his home, some ten miles away. If they don't learn to control their power, they'll lure in an army of Hollows. The thing is, I don't know whether or not they'd regret it. Probably just call it "training" and kill all of them. Gallus wondered how that would turn out. And how angry his father would be with his brother afterwords. Sometimes I'm glad to be the "good twin."
He heard Raedon come in through the front door, then heard a conversation between his father and brother ("Son, did you remember what your mother and I told you before you left?" "Shut up, you perverted old man!") Then Raedon came into the bedroom, plopped down on the bed, and fell asleep.
How he falls asleep so easily is beyond me . . . Gallus thought.
Wow . . . I can not write a fight scene.
Feedback? Please? If I don't know what I'm doing wrong, I can't fix it. I'm gonna aim low and say five reviews before the next chapter. That way I know someone liked it, and I'm not wasting my time.
