Chapter One: Reunion
Ryosuke stormed up the stairwell in a swirling mass of spiritual pressure. Lightning crackled around him and every so often a small bolt would fly from his body to shatter the concrete debris scattered around him. Everywhere his feet landed a spider web of ice crystals formed, making it treacherous for anyone to follow him without fear of slipping.
Goddamned Shinji Hirako.
Every one of them could feel it. You'd have to be blind not to. Not too far from their home a battle raged involving not one but two high ranking soul reapers, a captain and a lieutenant, and the strange spiritual pressure they'd been sensing since last May. Ryosuke had argued that they should go and investigate. Anything that's brings that kind of force to the World of the Living has to be bad news for the vizards as well. At the very least they should observe the situation and see if they needed to be concerned for themselves.
Shinji wouldn't hear of it. We'd blow our cover, he'd said. Soul reaper problems were soul reaper problems. We should go sticking our noses in where they might get chopped off. The list went on and on. Everyone had Shinji's back from Lisa to Kensei. So, after another twenty minutes of pointless arguing Ryo left to look into it himself.
Shinji told him that if he left to never come back, Ryo just kept walking
He came upon Hachigen's barrier and without so much as a backwards glance sent out a small pulse of his spiritual pressure through the shield, tearing open a hole large enough for him to leave. He wasn't too concerned about the damage. Hachi would fix up the shimmering golden shield in no time.
"Wait!" someone called.
Ryosuke turned to see Lisa stepping over the tear in the barrier and running toward him. When she drew close she doubled over with her hands on her knees.
"You're a hard man to follow," she panted," I nearly busted my ass on that damn frost of yours trying to catch up to you."
"Sorry," he said shortly.
She stood up and their eyes met. He tried not to shy away from the intensity of her gaze.
"Don't go. It's not worth it," she pleaded," Not worth not having a home to come back to."
He shrugged," It was bound to happen sooner or later. You know that as well as I do. I love Shinji like a brother, but I'm tired of putting up with his stubbornness," he told her flatly.
Lisa glared at him.
"So what? That's it? After everything we've been through? All the hollow battles? What Aizen did to us? The camaraderie? You're just going to throw all of that away!" she cried.
Ryosuke really didn't want to. She was right. Nothing was worth throwing a home, friends, away.
Then he remembered the look of derision on Shinji's face when he suggested they help.
"I guess I am," he growled.
She drew back her hand and slapped him hard with more than a little spirit energy behind it.
"Go then," she snarled," Go and don't ever come back."
He turned and walked away from her, so he wouldn't have to see the tears in her eyes.
After he'd put a few miles behind him he remembered to breathe. No one noticed as he passed. To everyone outside the barrier there appeared to be an empty lot behind him. Hachi also went so far as to project a kido field that rendered the abandoned warehouse undetectable to anyone in the area.
He breathed deeply of the cool night air, heavy with the promise of rain. He didn't bother to put his hood up because he'd always loved the energy of the rain as it hit his skin and just water in general. As the water fell it collected particles of spirit energy which he could harness for his benefit.
Ryo walked out of the dock area and deeper into Karakura Town. He flash stepped through most of the residential and shopping districts. As fast as he was moving it looked as if everyone else was frozen in time. Ryosuke slowed imperceptibly as he passed over the river that ran through most of the town. Finally he came to a lonely street illuminated by a few streetlamps.
By the time Ryosuke arrived it was already too late. Two young men, little more than boys really, lay in the middle of the street in twin pools of their own blood. He cursed himself as he felt echoes of spiritual pressure flow around him. There had been a battle, short but intense, involving nothing less than both the captain and their lieutenant. The dark haired boy on the sidewalk had dropped first, then the redheaded soul reaper who looked as if he'd already bled out.
The rain began to pour heavily and in great sheets. As if the heavens were lamenting what had occurred here. The three of them were soaked through in seconds.
Ryosuke walked over and knelt in the rainwater beside boy on the sidewalk and gently touched his shoulder. Felled by the lieutenant he surmised, and he didn't even have to release his zanpakto. Ryosuke probed deeper with his own spiritual pressure, something about the flow around the wound seemed familiar. After a moment he had it, that was Renji's pressure. How in the hell did that hothead ever get to the lieutenant level? The ragged wound across his chest was deep but not immediately fatal, meaning Renji hadn't taken the boy seriously. A small charm on the boy's wrist glinted in the light of a streetlamp, drawing his attention.
A Quincy cross.
"Well, well" he murmured, "tonight's full of surprises" he reached for the cross and the boy's hand reached up to clamp down over Ryo's own in a grip of surprising strength, given his injuries. Ryosuke tried to pull his hand free, but to no avail.
"Ichigo," his voice strained, "Please, help Ichigo," he looked over at the dead soul reaper and shudder of pain wracked his body.
Ryosuke followed his gaze and gently reached out with his spiritual pressure, if he was alive, he didn't want to traumatize the boy further with his heavy spiritual pressure. Faint, but still, the boy yet clung to life. Ryo gently removed his hand from the Quincy's stood up and walked to the fading soul reaper.
He wasn't dead yet, as Ryosuke had assumed, but he was in dire straits. Ichigo's left ventricle was pierced as well as his diaphragm. Those were precision strikes. The soul chain and soul sleep were completely obliterated. Something about that technique was familiar but he couldn't recall it at the moment. Ryosuke increased his pressure only slightly and the boy groaned in protest, but he had his answer. Byakuya Kuchiki, mister pride and prejudice himself. He immediately recalled the technique, one of Byakuya's favorites, that had cut the boy down. A flash step with a spin, that destroyed both spiritual centers. A technique that Ryosuke had helped him perfect.
If he didn't act now the boy was going to die. He looked up at Ryo with bleary eyes and tried to reach out to him with a shaky hand.
"Rukia," he said hoarsely, but Ryo ignored him.
"I'm going to try and heal you. Do not move and don't resist me or you'll die," he laid a heavy influence on the word as he lowered the boy's hand.
Ryo bit deeply into his thumb and drew specialized sigil on Ichigo's forehead, then he began to chant the spell.
"Halt oh crimson river of life. Cease your aimless wanderings, retrace your wayward steps, back through your shattered gates to your ancestral halls, and seal those gates behind you. Bakudo number one hundred, Kurenai Chiyu Inshou."
Considered a bakudo class kido because it literally took control of the target's body and enhanced it to incredible levels, this particular spell was of Ryosuke's own invention. It could heal the most devastating injuries with relative ease, but couldn't replenish the target's energy. He would have to rely on a more traditional healing kido for that, but in terms of power the Kurenai Chiyu Inshou was the greater spell.
Ryo's blood soaked into Ichigo's forehead and immediately the boy's own blood halted in it's tracks and began to flow backwards over the street shedding the impurities it had collected as it seeped back into his wounds. Slowly the torn flesh knitted back together and he took a bright clear breath before falling deeper into unconsciousness.
Ryo's vision blurred for an instant and the sudden drop in his energy caused him to sway. That was another drawback, the spell required a lot of energy to use.
Standing for a few moments in the rain restored some of his vigor and he moved to perform the same kido on the other young man he found that he too had slipped from consciousness. They were lucky he had come to investigate, it would put Shinji in a foul temper when he discovered what Ryosuke had done, but he didn't care at the moment. Not like he was going back anyway.
That's when the cold steel of a sword pressed against his neck.
Ryo tensed, cursing himself. How the hell did he let this fool sneak up on him. Whoever it was could obviously see him and apparently thought they could hurt him too. He had to play it calm if he wanted to make it through this. By god this blade was fierce, its pressure swirled around the edge calculating the best way to spill his blood. The press of spiritual pressure from the owner was no less fierce and, yet, strangely familiar.
"Step away from the boy, slowly, and I just might let you live."
Ryosuke gave a violent inward jerk and did as he was ordered. Oh please no, anyone but him. Please, please anyone else. Not now, not here, I was almost away! Even as he glanced down he knew from the shape of the blade even before he saw his attacker's face.
"Turn around," Ryosuke turned keeping his head down low and wishing he'd put up his hood would hide his features. His chin pressed painfully against his chest.
Benihime clattered to the ground, dropped from nerveless fingers, as Kisuke Urahara took an involuntary step back. His features were painted with shock.
"Hey Kisuke," he said softly," it's been a long time."
He supposed he really couldn't blame Kisuke for his reaction. Ryosuke had changed drastically over the years. His once midnight black hair had grown a few inches past his shoulders and the tips were bone white. Obsidian hoops adorned ears that were now pointed. Ryo self consciously brushed the nonexistent dirt off his clothes. The top half of his warped shihakusho was bleached white by his inner hollow. Black and white fabric met at his waist in a spiraled pattern, a manifestation of the war inside him. Several spiral arms reached into the territory of the opposite color.
Kisuke groped blindly for his zanpakto, who was busy scolding him indignantly for dropping her, never once taking his eyes off Ryosuke. Eventually he retrieved her and returned her to her cane sheathe. Kisuke's mouth opened and closed several times but couldn't voice his astonishment.
"How, I believe, is the question you're looking for," Ryo said softly.
That broke Kisuke out of his stupor. His face locked in a furious snarl he drew back his fist and punched Ryosuke solidly in the jaw. The blow spun him around until he landed backside first in the water. He sat there staring up at Kisuke.
"How dare you!" he roared, "How dare you allow me to believe you dead so many years! How could you Ryosuke! I thought we were friends, brothers even!" Kisuke's knuckles were stark white around his zanpakto "Well? Say something!" He hauled Ryo to his feet with his free hand.
For several long moments they stared at each other, their faces inches apart. Beneath the anger in Kisuke's eyes was a deep and bitter hurt. They had been friends once. Indeed, he, Kisuke, and Yoruichi had been closer than many traditional families in the World of the Living. Until Aizen ruined all of it in one fell swoop.
"I don't think this is the time or place. The soul reapers might be back any minute and these kids," he waved a hand "Need a lot more care than I can provide them here." he said gently," but I swear to you Kisuke, that I will give you a full reckoning of what I've been through these many long years."
Kisuke regained his senses and stared hard at his friend, "You're right, but I want a full explanation when we get back to my shop, leave nothing out. Tell me everything."
Smiling softly he nodded, after tending to the Quincy, he picked up Ichigo and hauled him over his shoulder, "Lead the way."
The ran deep into the rain washed night.
Author's Note: Well, I'll be honest I'm not sure what to say here. Ryosuke came to me about a year ago from literally out of the blue. I created him for a bleach rp site but I had to severely restrict him to cater to the sites rules. Looking back I've come to think of that Ryo as a younger, more vibrant person than he is today because he wasn't hollowfied back then. The Ryo you see now is a much older, hardened man than he used to be. Despite that though, he still had the capacity for great goodness or terrible evil. Same as all of us. It just depends on if he can overcome his past. He and Shinji's relationship is complicated. They have a great respect for each other, but their ideals are very different. While Shinji is more laid back, Ryo is more of a hands on soul reaper. So, of course, they fight a lot about how things should go, which culminates in the opening scene. I really enjoyed the writing the reunion between Kisuke and Ryo, but it didn't go how I thought it would. I stopped writing for Ryosuke a long time ago, now I just follow along just to see what happens next. Sometimes even I don't understand him entirely, but he's quickly become one of my favorite characters. Kurenai Chiyu Inshou roughly translates as Crimson Healing Seal if I'm not too mistaken.