Renji had always considered himself to be a lucky man. Lucky that when he died, he ended up in Soul Society. Lucky that he had met Rukia. Lucky that he had managed to work his way up to being captain of one of the most prestigious squads in Soul Society, the 9th division. But right now, as he trudged through the steamy jungles of his dream world, he felt anything but lucky. He cursed his mind's need to make everything accurate from the blistering heat to the mosquitoes that were buzzing around him like he was an all you can eat buffet. He was walking along a deer path towards some unknown destination for some unknown reason. Well, he sort of had a reason; when he was walking it was cooler than standing still because his movement created a breeze. The path finally ended in the form of a small pool and waterfall. It was just the right size for him to bathe in and he began to strip off his clothing to do so.
"So eager to jump in, even without knowing the consequences," a light female voice behind him said. Startled, he turned around and found himself staring at the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her hair was dark like night and pulled back elaborately with a pair of chopsticks. Her eyes were a deep purple and she was wearing a long, flowing, bright red kimono. He felt suddenly embarrassed in her presence and began jerking his top back on. She smiled at him as she sat on a rock next to the water. Softly she ran her hand through it, the water running between her fingers as she watched him. "Tell me, Abarai Renji, would you willingly serve the Gods without knowing the consequences?"
Was this some kind of trick question? He already served the Gods. He was a shinigami. They served the Gods by protecting the people from Hallows and sending souls to either Soul Society or Hell. And he knew what the consequences of his choice to be a shinigami were: his life would be full of conflict and strife, and he would someday die and cease to be. But he could tell that she was waiting for an answer from him.
"I am always willing to serve the Gods," he told her and she rose. As she did, her spiritual pressure increased to the point where it was impossible to stand, burning along his nerves like a freshly stroked fire. He knelt and he found himself staring at her kimono which glowed as she did, the excess spritions in the air sucked close to her like a magnet. He had never felt anything like this before. Not even Ichigo's presence at its most powerful felt like this. Realization dawned on him as a glowing porcelain hand grasped his chin. This was a Goddess, and not just any Goddess. This was Amaterasu; the Goddess o f the sun herself. Renji found himself squinting at she forced him to look up at her.
"I will entrust this to you then, Abarai Renji," her voice was loud, ringing in his head despite the gentleness with which she spoke. He felt her clasp a thick gold chain around his neck before she let go of his head. He looked down to see a glowing crystal sphere attached to the chain. It was not smooth, the spherical shape created by millions of tiny triangles. "It is both the key to Heaven and the key to Hell. It must be kept safe from those who wish to use it for ill. So I do charge you with its protection." As her last words were spoken, the dream shattered.
Renji woke the next morning to the sound of pounding at his door. Grimacing he rose from his futon and slid the rice paper doorway to the side. Rukia stood on the other side, a small smile on her face. She was dressed in normal clothes for the human world: a light green dress and knee high flesh colored boots. He blinked at her wondering why she was dressed like that before it hit him. Today was July 15-Ichigo's birthday. The two of them had worked extra hard to get the day off and to make arrangements for gigai so that they could surprise him. After all, it had been two years since the Winter War and they had not managed a single visit due to the fact that they were still trying to rebuild Soul Society.
"Renji, why aren't you ready? The gate opens in fifteen minutes!" Rukia said pushing her way into his quarters. Renji swore as he practically tore open his closet. He threw clothes over his shoulders as he sought the right outfit. This was his big chance after all. His honor had forced him to wait until Ichigo came of age before making a move on him despite the fact he had caught the other's eyes wandering during sparring. Renji began to pull the dark purple T-shirt over his head, only to have it get stuck due to his haste. He heard Rukia sigh and she began to tug on it until he got it over his head. "Renji, what's that?" Rukia asked pointing towards his collar bone.
"Hn?" Renji said as he looked down to find a crystalline sphere hanging from a gold chain. It was like a punch in his chest as the dream came back to him. Shit, shit, shit! Was all that Renji could think as he stared at it. He looked up at Rukia as nonchalantly as he could. He knew without being told that he was not to disclose just what it was that he had been given, even if he hated lying to Rukia. "It's just something that I picked up at the market the other day," he lied as he grabbed a pair of low-riding black jeans and went behind the paper screen that separated the two parts of his living quarters. Rukia detected the lie right away, though she misinterpreted the reason behind it. The fact that Renji liked men was a known fact despite the way he did not advertise it. Rukia had known of his attraction to Ichigo for some time. She had done everything she could to get him to forget about it. She knew that there was no way that it would work between the two of them. Ichigo was human and there was no guarantee that he would end up in Soul Society when he died. He could go straight to Heaven or Hell, and she did not want to deal with a heartbroken Renji.
"Liar," Rukia accused as Renji immerged from behind the screen. "I bet you got it from someone as a gift," Rukia touched it with a finger as she smiled mischievously. "Tell me who." Renji shook his head and backed away from her, grabbing the poorly wrapped present he had bought for Ichigo. Rukia pouted as she followed after him, using every one of her persuasive powers to try to get the who out of Renji.
She sat in the darkness of her throne room, sitting sideways on the chair with one leg over the arm. The only light was the moon that constantly shone in the desert of Hueco Mundo, but she didn't mind. She had been born beneath the same moon, raised in the darkness, the screams that could be heard just outside the chamber walls were like music to her ears. A letter was clenched in one hand, a frown marring her classically beautiful features. She had been waiting for this dispatch ever since she had come into her power and now holding it in her hands was shocking. She had thought to have more time. Not that she was unprepared by any means, but she had been looking forward to getting some recreational time in. Waving her hand delicately she summoned one of the many Hallows that served her. This particular one looked like a rather large spider with a human's upper body and head, though it was covered in an insect like mask.
"Tell the others that we have word that the player has been picked. We only have a short window in the human world to get our hands on it," she stood as she spoke, the Hallow nodding before scurrying off. They needed to get at least an anchor in the soul that the Gods had chosen. Not to do so would be to forfeit the game before it had even really begun.
Ichigo watched his ceiling fan as it spun on his ceiling trying to decide whether he wanted to get up or not. He had finally struck out on his own, even after both his sisters and his father had begged him to stay. He knew that he could not. After the war, there was a darkness in him and he wasn't just referring to the Hallow that rested inside his soul. No, he had made peace with him long ago. He knew that sometimes he would get a look on his face, he would fall into a dark depression as everyone he should've save danced across his eyes and sunk into his thoughts. His family did not deserve to deal with these moments. So he had moved out and into this condo. Ichigo sighed as he figured out that he was not going to go back to sleep. He walked out into the area that served as his dining/kitchen/living room. He may have found the money to buy a condo, but he was still a pre-med student at Tokyo U and that meant that money was tight. He opened his refrigerator and drank the milk straight out of the carton before making a face and spitting it out in the sink. He looked at the date and found it was two days past due. He tossed it in the trash as he filled a glass with water in order to rinse the taste from his mouth.
He was startled out of his staring match with the window above the sink by the doorbell. Who the hell could it be? His family was in the states for some kind of medical conference, Inoue was away visiting some relatives, Chad had gone back to Mexico to train for some kind of world boxing tournament, and Ishida was stressing over his latest patterns for Tokyo fashion week. Ichigo heaved a sigh as he walked to the door. The second that he touched the doorknob he felt it. There were several different reiatsu on the other side of the door. He felt his eyebrows reach his hairline as he recognized who was on the other side of his door. What were they doing here? He hadn't seen them in years. Surely, the world was not in some kind of danger again. He pulled the door open to reveal his friends and comrades from the war: Rukia, Renji, Ikkaku, and Yumichika. All of them were in street clothes and if his nose was not lying to him they had take out in the large bag Renji was carrying.
"You just going to stand there?" Rukia asked as she shoved him to the side so that she could walk into his apartment. Ichigo just blinked as she sunk into the single chair in the room.
"Happy birthday, man," Ikkaku said as he shoved a box covered in bright paper into his hands as he walked past. Yumichika snorted before handing him his own present, a box much thinner and not as gaudily wrapped. Renji nodded at him before moving to set the food on the counter in the kitchen area. Ichigo could not help it if he noticed the fact that when Rukia did not dress Renji he actually looked half-way decent in street clothes. He hadn't even bothered with a bandana to try to hide the tattoos on his forehead. Kami, how long had he wanted to find out just how far down the tattoos went. But he needed to pull himself back into the moment. He had totally forgotten that today was his birthday. He moved towards the couch.
"So why are you guys here?" Ichigo asked as he sat on the floor because everyone else was accompanying his entire living room set. Rukia frowned at him as she tossed a package at him.
"We can't just come visit you for your birthday? There has to be something up?" Rukia asked glaring at him. Ichigo just frowned at her.
"Forgive me if I'm a little suspicious, but the last time I saw you was a couple of years ago and we were ass deep in alligators at the time," Ichigo said flatly. Renji snorted.
"More like we spent the two years trying to get leave," he said as he handed out different boxes of take out to everyone. Ichigo just sighed. It was a likely excuse.
"So are you going to open the presents?" Ikkaku asked as he slurped noodles from his take out container. Ichigo rolled his eyes as he grabbed Ikkaku's present. He tore open the package to find a set of weights and a bottle of sake.
"The weights should stay on while you're in your spirit form too, and they're adjustable depending on how much reiatsu you use," Ikkaku told him while pointing at the weights with his chopsticks. Leave it to the third seat of the tenth division to give him something related to training and drinking. It was all he ever thought about after all.
"Thanks," Ichigo said as he grabbed the package Yumichika had handed him. He opened it to find a beautiful set of Shihakushō. They were the compulsive black and white, but the armband was a rusted orange in color with a buttercup outlined in black. Ichigo blinked as he realized that what he was looking at was the uniform of a vice-captain of the 9th division. Why on earth was Yumichika giving him that? "What…?" Ichigo asked as he looked at the other man. He just grinned.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Yumichika said with a small smile. "I had to guess at your size, but I figured you wanted to look half-way decent for the ceremony. That is assuming you accept." Ichigo's eyes got round as he realized what the other was saying.
"Wait a second," Ichigo said as he left the uniform in the box and looked around the room. "You mean someone's asking me to be there vice-captain? I don't even know who the current acting captain is."
"You're looking right at him," Renji said from his place on the arm of the chair that Rukia was sitting on. Ichigo blinked before smirking.
"You want me under you?" Ichigo said and Renji had to bite his tongue for a moment. Did he have no idea how dirty that sounded? Did he not care that he had Renji's imagination on overdrive? Ichigo had to fight back the blush as he realized just what he said sounded like.
"That would be correct," Renji said as he noted the small dash of color on the other's cheeks. "Hitsuguya-taichou nominated me for the position at the last meeting. We're still having some trouble with people not wanting to be on the 'cursed' divisions." Ichigo nodded as he absorbed the information. It made sense that people were still wary of joining the divisions that the traitors had come from even if the divisions themselves had proved to be loyal. But this rose another question in his mind.
"Will I have to stay at Soul Society?" Ichigo asked frowning. He knew that there was no way that he could give up where he was living like Chad and Ishida. He had been the shinigami on duty around here for so long and he really didn't trust very many others with the job. Not only that, but his family would be devastated if he just disappeared while they were gone.
"Yeah," Renji said putting his hand behind his head in a nervous gesture. This was the part where his plan could fall apart. Ichigo was very family oriented. "But I'm sure we could work something out so that you could see your family fairly frequently," he was quick to add. Ichigo looked at him still frowning.
"I'll think about it," he said finally. Renji nodded his head as Rukia demanded that Ichigo open her present now.
Lust stood floating in the atmosphere looking down at the town that held the one thing her entire life had been working towards. The key was down there somewhere and would only be for another few hours. She knew that whoever had been chosen did not reside in this dimension and she really didn't want to have to start actually cracking open random ones to look for him. She caught Greed's eyes . The man was tall dark and handsome. He was everything a woman would want and had eaten more souls with the smile he was now wearing that any of the other sins save her.
"C'mon, Lust-chan," a whiny voice complained. It belonged to a boy who looked about twelve with wild hair and razor sharp teeth. "I wanna fight."
"Patience," another voice said this time coming from an overly plump woman who was eating teriyaki as she spoke. "I just hope I get a decent meal out of this. So many souls here so very ripe…"
"Contain yourselves, Gluttony, Wrath," a regal looking woman said frowning. She could not believe that she was forced into this company. But she would not fail in the task that had been assigned to everyone, even if she had to do it herself. Suddenly, everyone's attention went to the appearance of a small toddler who was sleeping on his side holding a teddy bear. The bear rose from the child's grip and moved to dance in front of them.
"I've found it! Found it! Found it!" the bear said with childish enthusiasm. The child disappeared as the bear streaked towards their destination. They would get the key and they would open the gate between hell and the mortal world.