Walking down the Rukongai streets without her katana, without even her shinigami hakama, feels like being naked. All these ruthless scumbags already following her every step, she can feel them, their eyes upon her fragile body. She feels like she´s screaming, begging for them to hurt her, by just walking by alone, unharmed. And with no kido even, no reiatsu left to help her, since she had been too much time under the sekiseki stone. She´s like a fresh meat thrown into a pack of wolves.
But she´s worth it. Ellie is worth every single beat of her racing, fearing heart. Every single sweat drop from her brow. Ellie´s been the only person Rukia has met that makes Renji look that way, to set his eyes ablaze so fiercely. She owes her that much. Besides, she was told that Ellie herself had come to her aid. Wouldn´t it be the least she could do? Help her out, searching for her? Even though it was the only thing she could do now. Blend in, so she could search for her shinigami comrade.
So, instead of hiding, and joining the rescue committee and stalking, she´s out in the open, walking as if she were another soul, another bystander, someone astray, so she could blend in and find more information, even find Ellie, because no one would be worried or keeping secrets from someone so… insignificant, like her.
So she walks by, in the middle of the street, the moonlight illuminating her frame, but, although she was walking with her chin high up, now she lowers it, so that her features are hidden. But her brow is set, so her look is painted so fearsome… that even she, a petite, weak, and vulnerable lonely woman, makes some bystanders give a step back. Guess too much of that Kuchiki pride that won´t back off. Still, she likes that.
But, even though she´s weakened by the time she was held captive, she´s still good at sensing reiatsu, so her step is paused, searching in every house for a trace that could give away her position.
She was focus on the search, distracted a little, but then all her senses went off, sending alarms into her brain. Until she spot them.
Two ragged, scar-full guys were watching her intently, an evil smirk playing on one of their faces. She gulped, but kept on walking, her head raised once more.
"Hey, baby!" she heard them call "you alone? Want some company?"
She knew that, ignoring them would be the best way to deal with the situation. Most of them would just shrugged her off, not minding the problem. Unfortunately, she knew that it didn´t apply to all of them, and when she heard footsteps behind her, matching her same rhythm, she knew that this was one of those times. She set her muscles tight, ready for the run. Or to attack. Even though she didn´t have her reiatsu back, she was anyways skilled on the hand-to-hand combat. And all the dirty combat that required the Rukongai as well. She clenched her jaw, slowing her strides, when she saw two other men approaching from her front.
"So. Changed your opinion?" another voice. Okay, they were five now. Which was better? To run? To fight? To just give away? She already knew she couldn´t win.
Hell, but she was a shinigami. And a Kuchiki. She wouldn´t die there without a fight.
She was surrounded now, but her fists were done, and her resolve settled. 'Ichigo'. How curious it was that she was thinking of him in this situation. Was she asking for his help?. The moment she felt someone touch her arm, she recoiled, and instead of attacking the closest, she attacked the farthest with her foot, breaking his nose, while with her right elbow she broke the ribs of the close one. She then dropped to the ground and made a sweep that sent another two hit the ground with a loud thud. She smirked at that. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
But, although she was moving rather fast, she couldn´t sidestep from the fifth man. The said man, quickly recovered from the surprise of her first assault, punched her on her left hear, bringing her down and pinning her on the earth. The pain was unbearable, but the spinning of her head was worse. She felt the world turning, and any movement of her head made it worse. She heard a crack, and then realized it came from her torso, but she didn´t register the pain until later, until more blows came in. Someone was kicking her on the ribs, breaking some, making it harder to breathe.
Already on the ground, she tried to regain some focus, and felt their hands trying to rip off her clothes, heard her horrible laughter. They were laughing at her defeat, at her ridiculous vulnerability. She felt hot tears of rage begin to form on her shut eyes.
But then she realized that there was some farther laughter, and that the hands that were searching had stopped, and her attacker´s focus was set on something else, aside from her.
"What ´cha want, moron?" she heard some of the attackers say, and when she could finally open her eyes, she saw a group of men approaching them, some of them yielding branches, rocks and some wood-blades. But with the same, devilish smirk on their faces.
"Nothing… much, you bastard. Only, y´er hunting in OUR territory. Shouldn´t we get some of y´er feast?"
"YOUR territory??" another one shrieked. Rukia propped herself on her elbows, reading for the moment for the run.
"Forget it, dumbass! She´s OURS! No way yer´getting your dirty hands on our meal! WE got her! ´sides, she owes us! She kicked some of us!" said the first man. Surely seemed like the lider of the pack.
The lider of the other group laughed mockedly. "By HER?? She´s barely a woman!! You sure are weak!"
"Well THAT does it!" and with that, the pack launched itself against the other, which were already tasting the feeling of a good fight.
Too ready for that, Rukia launched herself toward the opposite direction, almost falling twice in her run, until she saw some old woman almost hidden in a house, or what looked like a house, making signals for her to approach. The moment Rukia entered, the old lady closed the ragged door.
Gasping for air, she felt the pain on her chest, preventing her to breathe deeper, so she started to moan, trying desperately to get some oxygen on her system.
"Poor thing" she heard the woman say, in the same moment that felt a cold towel being applied on her head. She hadn´t realized she was bleeding. "They hit you so hard, I thought they would kill you. Although they seemed they had a worse idea. Well, in any ways, you were lucky they picked a fight with some other tugs, or you could've ended up like those shinigami from the house."
Still in pain, those last words immediately brought her attention towards the woman. "Shinigami? Which shinigami? What do you mean?"
"What girl? You don´t know? Haven´t you heard the screams? "
Hiding her surprise, Rukia feigned knowledge at that. "Oh, yeah… the screams… but I didn´t know they were coming from Shinigami. Are they here?.
Too happy to have someone to talk to, and who was actually listening, the woman kept on. "Those shinigami were brought here, on the last house of the village, some days ago. They were like twenty, and everyday a group of men takes the body of one or two into the pyre to burn. Seems like they´re torturing them for some information, wouldn´t you think? Or maybe being punished"
Rukia feared for Ellie, praying that she wasn´t in the bodies thrown. Trying to focus to keep her anxiety low, she kept on the questioning. "So, at the end of the village, ne? we should get away from there, or… or we could get some information and sell it. You know, for food."
The eyes of the woman lit up at the word of meal. "Yes. Yes you´re right! We should get some food."
"But don´t get too rushed. You could get harmed, they´re dangerous people anyways. You´ve helped me too much, please let me repay you by bringing you some food that I collect from that payment. Please, tell me where to find this place so I can go get our prize."
"Yes, yes, it´s right on the north, I tell you, the last house on the street. It´s almost fallen, so you won´t miss it". Rukia cringed at that. Yeah, as if none of this houses weren´t almost falling.
"Okay. Hide yourself well, I´ll come back soon with food for you." She promised herself that, if she ever lived to tell, she would definitely come back to keep that promise. But her priority now was Ellie.
She immediately went out, stepping on the back of the houses so that she was hidden, running as far and as fast as she could to the north. Her breaths came into a gasp, first for the pain, but also for her weakened body. She felt anger rush into her veins again, the desperation of feeling so… undressed from her power. But the instinct took over, and she remembered, while running, everything she learnt in her life at the Rukongai. So when she reached the house, she was able to hide herself properly, knowing that she couldn´t be found.
'Renji!' she thought. ' I must warn him! He must know where she is, and if something happens to me, he will find her anyways.' So she reached for the faint reiatsu that she had struggled to regain these past couple of days, and with that, a hell butterfly appeared. She immediately delivered her message to him. She sighed, relieved to think that help was coming her way.
She suddenly felt herself being jerked by her clothes, and found a pair of eyes boring holes into hers.
"Gotcha! You should´ve known better to hide your reiatsu, stupid rabbit!" the male shinigami said, and with that, she heard a thud, at the same time registering pain in the back of her head, while her senses went numb. But she didn´t lose it completely, and felt herself being carried to some place while the shinigami talked with someone else, although she couldn´t understand the words.
A loud noise was heard, like a big, rustled iron door being moved around , and she felt her body fly, suspended in midair for some seconds, to suddenly feel the cold and hard, painful kiss of the ground, and she heard the laughter close by but fading into the distance.
"Are you all right?" she heard a voice close to her, while she moved, trying to refocus, willing herself to gain her consciousness and awareness. "Don´t move" the voice said, "you have a very nasty wound on your head. You´ll be alright soon." She felt cold hands pushing her downward, and a soothing sensation washed over her. Those hands seemed friendly enough.
"R-Rukia?"
Her eyes popped open suddenly. She´d heard that voice before. "Ellie!"
She jumped upward, fast up on her feet, to suddenly feel the world growing black and feeling her feet stumbling.
"Easy, girl!" she was secured by two hands holding her waist, and when she was able to see again, she saw another shinigami, one she didn´t know, and Ellie standing in front of them, many steps away…. holding a very strange expression on her face, one that resembled something akin to distrust.
'I see' Rukia thought. 'She still resents me.'
"Thank you" she said to the shinigami, pulling her eyes off the girl unwillingly. How could she help her if she didn´t trust her? How could she convince her to be on her side, to fight along with her? Where in the world was Renji??!
"Here" the shinigami said, offering a piece of dirty cloth "You´re still bleeding, press this into your forehead. It will help. My name is Hyuga, what´s yours?"
"Kuchiki Rukia" she heard her name said in a bitter tone and rose her eyes to meet the girl´s. Amethysts met cerulean, but this time Rukia held the piercing gaze. Gosh! She HAD to convince her to trust her! It would be their only way to survive!
She braced herself to stand again, this time slowly. "Hey! Kuchiki san! Wait! You´re not well!". Rukia ignored the pull on her clothes, the wavering of the world around her and, staggering, she walked insecurely few steps toward the blonde. She saw her smirk. 'What?' Rukia thought, 'is she thinking that I´m waiting for her to help me?'. Rukia smirked on her own and crouched a little, fisting her free hand. The blonde´s eyebrow raised and gave a step backward, fisting her hands as well. Rukia smiled at that.
Another step, and this time the blond raised her fists in an openly aggressive stand. Rukia didn´t falter, and gave another step, this time throwing away the cloth and ignoring the warm liquid that ran through her face, into her neck. The smile never left her face.
"I´m glad you´re alright" She finally said. "We´ve been looking for you all over". Another step, and this time the blonde was the one to smile.
"Yeah, well, I´m alive. It´s good to see that you are as well. It would´ve been such a waste of blood and pain." Rukia stopped in her tracks, her smile faltered, involuntarily showing the pain that cringed at her soul when she thought of all the harm and lost that was caused for her sake. The blonde smirked again, and Rukia smiled as well. The girl had scored first, after all.
"Yes, I´m thankful for you too. I know you did some incredible things on your own. For MY sake as well." Another step.
"It wasn´t for you sake" the blonde´s smile was lost, and her eyes set ablaze for a fraction of a second. Then she gained control of her temper. Ellie crouched a little farther, standing this time on her side, reading her first attack.
"Doing it for Renji´s sake, it´s like doing it for mine. We are that way, you know?" Ellie flinched at that, and Rukia knew she had scored one more. But this time she moved fast, ignoring the pain on her body for her new wounds, trusting only her instincts to pull her through this shinigami that held all her powers. She launched a right kick, knowing immediately that Ellie was ready for this, but trusting that the second she had gained would be enough. She was wrong.
Ellie stopped it with her forearm and launched a direct kick in the stomach, which Rukia blocked with both arms, feeling the momentum pushing her backwards. She felt a pang of pain from her ribs, and left herself fall, gaining balance to throw a second kick at the head of her opponent, which Ellie blocked again. But Rukia was ready for this, and took the momentum to push Ellie´s feet off the ground with her other leg, and standing up with the same kinetic.
But Ellie wasn´t a rookie anymore, and as soon as her body hit the floor, she jerked backwards, standing as well. And the moment she did that, her eyes met Rukia´s fist, stopped an inch from them. Rukia smiled, and Ellie mirrored it, pushing the hand away and sending another kick towards the head. Rukia avoided it, jumping backwards, and Ellie rushed to her side, trying to surprise her. But Rukia sent a direct kick that Ellie barely stopped with her hands, her whole weight into it. That made Rukia fall into the floor, losing balance, overwhelmed by the power of the other. ' Too much time in the sekiseki prison' she mused, as she struggled to gain balance as fast as she could. Just to stop in the middle of the movement, when she saw a fist an inch from her face.
Both girls smiled at each other, panting lightly, making Rukia cringe for her previous encounter, which Ellie didn´t notice it.
"I´m glad you´re strong enough to at least beat someone who´s been under the Sekiseki" Rukia said. "We´ll need all that strength to get outta here."
"Don´t be so full of yourself. We ARE under sekiseki right now. These walls are made of it."
Rukia´s eyes grew wide. Was it so? She didn´t notice before, given that she had almost no reiatsu left, and was recovering quite slowly.
"What do you mean by getting out of here?" Hyuga finally asked. He had been standing motionless, surprised at the girl´s exchange, and impressed as well. How would a commoner stand against a seated officer?
"Help is on its way" Rukia answered to the shinigami, and then looked intently into Ellie´s eyes. "RENJI is on his way".
Ellie´s eyes grew wide as plates. "Renji is alive??"
Rukia smiled, a warm one this time. "Yes, alive and well. Or as well as he might be, given that he doesn´t know what´s become of you". Rukia got up, and Ellie gave a step backwards, to give her room. But as soon as she was standing on her feet, Ellie grabbed her shoulders, digging her fingers on her.
"Tell me everything." She pleaded, boring deep holes into Rukia´s eyes.
Rukia smiled at her, this time a determined one, and put a hand upon one of the blonde´s. "Of course."
The door of the cell suddenly exploded into an array of fragmented, splintered wood and dust. Light came pouring in from the hallway, making the large, panting figure at the doorway nothing more than a silhouette. Bodies littered the floor behind him; anything that stood in the path between him and his girls.
"You..." He took a step inside, revealing some of his features and distinctive markings. His eyes scanned the room frantically. It was all he had been thinking of the entire way there. His joints were sore, his mind on the verge of insanity as he stood there gasping for breath. "You're both... here..."
"It's about time..." Rukia feigned impatience while a grin tugged at her lips as she stared up at him.
"Y-You're..." Ellie's voice shook as she stared wide-eyed, as if seeing a ghost. "You're..."
His eyes softened as he took in her ragged form. It was bittersweet... and couldn't possibly be real. He had spent so many long hours dreaming of this moment and now it was---
"You jerk!" She cried, rushing forward and burying her face in his chest. As her fists grasped the material of his uniform, he took a step back from the impact.
"Ell..." He looked down, hesitantly bringing his arms around her shaking form. "Hey..."
She looked up, the light from the hallway reflecting in her glossy cerulean gaze. "Don't leave."
He took in a sharp breath in surprise at her words. "I won't." Pulling her closer, he stroked her hair and sighed. "...I won't."
Rukia turned away, a soft smile playing on her lips.
They stay like that for a while, both of them clinging to the other for dear life. It was as if either were to let go, the dream might shatter.
"You came for me..." She muttered into his chest, reveling in the familiarity of his scent.
"What?" He looked down, tilting his head to the side. "Of course I did. There's nothing more important to me."
Something clenched in her chest at his words as an unfamiliar feeling stirred within her. Suddenly, the room felt a little too warm and stuffy.
She pulled back slightly, tugging at her collar.
He watched her painstakingly methodic movements with shielded eyes. Swallowing hard, he tried to ignore the tender skin she exposed along her collar bone
"Ellie..." He stiffened at his own words, not missing the low rumble in his tone.
Craning her neck, she met his eye with a blush and bit her lip.
It was enough to make his senses go haywire. A cool sweat formed along his brow as he stood there, unsure of how to proceed. After all, they hadn't really had time to get to a stage of comfort just yet...
Pulling down on his collar, she brought him to her level without another word. He didn't have time to say anything before she raised up on her tiptoes and crushed her mouth to his.
His eyebrows raised at the sudden move, but it was all the invitiation he needed. Slipping his arms around her waist, he easily lifted her from the ground and slammed her back against the cool cell wall.
A moan emanated from her throat and she pulled him closer, wrapping her legs around his waist.
Her fingers swept back along his hairline, making quick work of the elastic in his hair. Ripping it free of it's confinement, she gently tugged on the crimson strands. He growled, startling her for a moment before she realized that it wasn't for pain. His uneasy breaths blew warm air across her neck, sending a shiver down her spine. "Renji..." She breathed, bringing her mouth to his ear, whispering the words she had locked away for years. He stiffened, feeling his heart exploding in his chest. It was all he could do to keep from throwing her to the cell floor right there.
She leaned back against the cragged, cold surface of the wall, her fingers slipping beneath the fabric of his collar. Her lips formed a thin, determined line as she tugged at the heavy material.
Though exahausted to no end, she used the last of her frustrated energy to rip the robe back. It was already torn in places from the battle prior, stained with blood... both of their blood dried and intermingled.
With a low growl of her own, she ripped the white undergarment apart to reveal his bare chest. Even within the pale, dim lighting, she could make out the markings of tribal tattoos etched proudly across his chest.
He hmmphed at this, a smirk pulled at the corners of his mouth. Before she could even raise an eyebrow, he reached forward and ripped the front of her uniform in a single, powerful movement. Stale air moved across her chest in a thin draft as she looked down at the bloodied bandages barely concealing part of her breasts.
Her face heated up as she looked back up at him with wide eyes. Something about the look he gave her silenced any words of protest.
Tilting her chin up indignantly, she allowed a smirk of her own to cross her features, as she slipped her hands down to the white sash tied around his waist.
-"Hey! This way!"-
Their eyes widened as voices were heard approaching, each panting for breath.
With an almost feral, frustrated growl, he slammed his fist into the wall beside her head. "So much for that..." He muttered darkly, helping her down to her feet.
Pushing her behind him, and making sure his back was also to Rukia, he drew his zanpakuto.