A/N What if it wasn't Ichigo who caught up with Rukia when she ran away the night she was arrested? What if it was Orihime?
Pride before the Fall
A crow, cawing loudly in its dissonant harsh tones, fled the lamppost it was perching on. A normal balmy evening had turned completely incomprehensible for the winged creature.
It was not unaware of the change in the wind when different floating two-legged spirits entered its world, strange and terrifying as they are with their extraordinary speeds and glinting sticks. It was fortunate though that no matter how often they came and went, they showed no penchant for eating birds, unlike some of their earth-bound cousins in this city, who eat chicken and ducks.
Tonight, however, had been a completely different matter. No, the flying bipeds have not changed their customary diet. No, no, tonight, two of them seem to be speaking with their earth-bound cousins. Voices, not understood by the crow, had initially started low before escalating in volume. Words ended, and one of the ghostly ones drew out its glinting stick, which had caused a wind vacuum in this area near the waters.
The crow did not dawdle as it winged east. Better fly away and live another day as a live bird, than one who braves the wind and falls off its perch.
In human speech, what really happened…
"You've grown disgustingly soft, Rukia. Don't you see? You've become as weak and emotional as the humans which you're surrounded with in your gigai." A redheaded shinigami, wearing goggles, raised his zanpakutou towards a petite dark-haired, violet-eyed girl. "Who is the real human you gave your powers to? If you continue to hide him, I'll cut you down and kill her as well." He cried out, as he jerked his head backwards to the violet girl's orange-haired companion, stationed behind him.
"Kuchiki-san!" Orihime cried out as the blade raced towards her friend. Kuchiki Rukia could feel the sting of the cut across her cheek and the fatigue from avoiding Renji's blade wearing down on her. Flipping over his head, she landed, but not before rolling her ankle, eliciting a sickening crack from the appendage.
"Kuchiki-san!" Orihime was strickened, distraught. Having caught up earlier to Kuchiki-san who had been running away, for there was no doubt that she was running away – wearing a backpack, leaving in the middle of the night, unable to come up with a decent excuse when asked – when Orihime saw her upon exiting the sewing equipment store for spools of thread for the Handicrafts Fair coming up, Orihime had proceeded trying to persuade the former shinigami to come back. To "at least wait until the morning to say goodbye to everyone, even if you don't wish to tell me why you're leaving, Kuchiki-san" when Orihime had sensed it.
Strange reiatsus and the sensation of being spied upon.
Ignoring Rukia's query of 'what's wrong', she had proceeded to close her eyes and enter into that state of semi-subconciousness within the calm of her mind where she could best sense the threads of other people's spirit energy. Expanding her senses, she found the patch of strange abnormality, like a clumsy, misplaced stitch on cloth, a crinkle within the air, trying to blend in.
"Tsubaki."
Firing off her offensive fairy, and hearing a shattering sound, Orihime then snapped her head upwards to see the remaining shards of a concealing barrier raining down around her and Kuchiki-san. Two figures stood on the lamppost – shinigamis. One had red hair tied up in a ponytail and appears to know Kuchiki-san. The other one, taller and silent, with strange white hair ornaments within his black hair seemed to be, judging from Kuchiki-san's whisper, her brother!
The redhead, Renji, had taunted Kuchiki-san for not being able to sense him and his captain while a human could. He had spat the word out as though it were filthy within his mouth. He had went on to question the two girls if Orihime is the human who took Kuchiki-san's spiritual power before Orihime understood that the two shinigamis were hunting for Ichigo, and vowed to stay silent on that count to protect him.
It has led to Renji attacking Rukia, and the latter currently injuring herself.
"Santen Kesshun." Renji cursed in surprise when a triangular, orange barrier prevented him from impaling Rukia, shielding the smaller girl. Furiously turning towards Orihime, he was caught out by a red blur zipping towards him.
"Koten Zanshun." Grimacing, Orihime had no choice but to attack Renji with Tsubaki. She knew she was Renji-san's next target. Her fairy, being inappropriately proud at the moment in her opinion, had sliced him across the chin and cut the wrist of his sword hand straight to the bone.
"Shit!" Renji let out a string of expletives, which would have caused Orihime to blush had it not been for the current circumstances that she found herself in.
"What are you, girl? Strange fairy powers that you've got-"
"You're being distracted, Renji. And by a complete child no less according to a lieutenant's standard."
Orihime whirled around, eyes widening at the proximity that Kuchiki Byakuya gained without her notice. Her perceptive eyes saw him reaching to unsheathe his sword. Quickly deducing that he would be too fast – and too heavy most likely – for her to flip over her shoulder as Tatsuki-chan has taught her, she reached out to grab both his wrists. Seeing the surprise in his eyes, she kept her hold on him, using him as her balance as she swung downwards and tried to dislodge his balance with her right leg forming a half arc, inches from the ground, to trip up his legs. Orihime released his wrists when he pulled away, her pulse pounding in her ears.
"What else can you do, human?" She was nearly taken off-guard by his fast counterattack. He was shunpoing towards her at an inhuman speed with his sword out this time in front of him. Reflexively, Orihime threw up her Santen Kesshun. Kuchiki Byakuya appraised her fairy shield.
"Odd indeed," he murmured before he continued his series of attacks. Orihime was able to block the first three of his sword strokes before her shield shattered under the fourth blow.
"Orihime!" she heard Rukia shout behind her. Byakuya's eyes briefly widened at the human girl before returning to its impassive gaze.
"Mind your own battle, Rukia! Keep your eyes on your own opponent, or did you forget this first lesson as a shinigami!" Renji's voice sounded loudly in the night air. Orihime did not even have the time to even think of mentally calling for Kurosaki-kun in her current state. Byakuya's katana was descending towards her rapidly while Kuchiki-san has been left open and vulnerable. Her Santen Kesshun can only save one person.
She made a decision.
Renji once again found himself thwarted by the same orange shield. Growling in anger, he pivoted only to be confronted with the strangest sight. The human girl was crying, and although his captain appeared unwounded, something wasn't right. The blade of Senbonzakura hovered centimeters from her orange head.
"I'm so sorry…I'm so sorry…" Kuchiki Byakuya took in the tears leaking from the mortal girl's eyes, his face inscrutable. The feelings of remorse, of horror, self-loathing and sadness were choking the air around them. Not one drop of hate could be found in that mélange. Renji and Rukia could not – and will not, not if he could help it – see the gaping wound near his hip, right in the place where a samurai would have committed seppuku. Her fairy had cleanly cut him straight through. Like Senbonzakura.
He withdrew his zanpakutou, assessing Orihime.
She was under no illusions. He was not retreating. He was waiting.
Taking her chance, she whispered, "Shoten Kisshun."
Byakuya and Renji saw two orbs of light fly towards Rukia, enveloping her and healing her cuts, bruises, and with a pop, her ankle.
"What the hell are you?" Renji shouted, Zabimaru pointed at Orihime now, his attention on Rukia completely forgotten. In glancing over at the latter, Orihime did not see Byakuya's raised hand.
"Bakudo 61, Rikujokoro."
Rukia cried out her friend's name once more as she saw Orihime's pain, the healer's breath cut short by the Six Rods of Imprisoning Light impaling her and holding her in place.
"You really are losing focus aren't you, Renji? Practice what you preach. Kill her." Byakuya's gaze was still focused on Orihime as he tilted his head off-handedly in the direction of Rukia. He drank in the horror and panic on Orihime's features.
"No, don't!" Renji reluctantly turned away, focus shifting once more. "Kuchiki-san!" Orihime cried out as she shook her bonds, her hands clenching and unclenching, unaware of the sweat that trickled down the side of her face as she anxiously tried to reach her friend. Seeing Renji raise his sword, her panic and reiatsu spiked.
"No." she whispered. "No." Not again, not like with Sora-nii-chan.
"Yamete!" she screamed as her spirit pressure, tears and desperation broke the hold of the Kido spell. Renji and Rukia gaped at the funnel-shaped whirlwind obscuring the human girl. Orihime stepped out, raised her hands to her hair clips, lips parting, one foot taken in the direction of Rukia when her eyes widened from pain and she collapsed on the ground.
One person had not been surprised at her escape. He had been prepared when she dissolved his spell like child's play with her reiatsu. His anger at her ability, her sheer stubbornness and determination to protect Rukia when he didn- provoked him to let loose on her his Shikai.
"Chire, Senbonzakura." A thousand petal-blades had sliced Orihime's back. Her Santen Kesshun, unconsciously thrown up defensively, was the only barrier that prevented her arms, legs and head from being sliced off. Red rapidly pooled at Kuchiki Byakuya's feet as he gazed apathetically on Orihime, crimson spreadingly alarmingly fast across her yellow blouse. Noticing the shallow rise and fall of her chest, he said, "You live… and still retain the form of your body. Impressive." Byakuya ignores the horrified whisper of "Nii-sama" coming from his left.
"Renji, you're stalling." Orihime weakly raises her head. As Renji and Rukia face each other once more, Byakuya keeps his gaze on Orihime, mentally asking her what she can do. He was answered by her crawling, in pain, towards her forgotten sewing bag.
Coughing from the exertion, Orihime continued her snail's crawl on bloody wrists, partly using her blood on the ground to slide towards her goal. Gritting her teeth from the pain, her trembling fingers brushed against a spool of thread in her sewing bag. Bracing herself on her exhausted elbow, she used her teeth to cut the thread before using both hands to form a cat's cradle. Raising her eyes, she notices Renji's sword has taken on a different form, one with jagged edges across both sides of the blade. And extendable as well, she notes, as Rukia jumps out of the way in time.
"I'll kill you in one blow, Rukia."
Pulling one thread to form a loop around her thumb, Orihime's whisper carried on the wind.
"I reject."
Renji was stunned speechless when his sword gave a pulse, glowing, before reverting to its normal state. "What the f-!" Rukia was likewise shocked. She had never known that Orihime's powers had been focused and trained to this extent. She has been practicing.
Orihime prepared to pull another loop when she felt herself jerked backwards, pulled onto her knees, and a heartbeat later, felt a blade pressed against the delicate column of her throat while a hand locked both her arms.
"Truly, what are you, girl?" She turns around carefully, her startled eyes meeting the piercing gaze of Kuchiki Byakuya. Her anger rises.
"Why are you doing this?"
Kuchiki Byakuya gazed impassively into the eyes of the female ryoka whom he has currently pressed to his chest, her blood unconsciously staining his captain's haori.
"I believe that should my line." He intoned passively. "Why would you" his fingers tighten their grip on her wrists, to the point of bruising them, he knows, "help someone who is not related to you in any way? Why care? Why love?"
"Kuchiki-san is my nakama. I can't let her die!" She meets his gaze unflinchingly. "Why are you allowing this to happen? Kuchiki-san is your sister. How can you order- how can you let her be killed? Older brothers are supposed to protect their younger sisters!"
"You speak as though from experience."
"I am. I had an older brother once. I was, I am, I know what a younger sister should experience. And that is love!"
"What importance is that emotion?" Byakuya challenged his captive, eagerly waiting for her response, eagerly anticipating to strike her down while still hoping she will continue to-
"What can possibly be more important?" Orihime cried out.
"My pride in my family name and the law of Soul Society. If, as one of the four noble houses, I do not uphold the law, who will?" Byakuya did not know why he is explaining all this to this child, but he wants her answers, wants her to play his Devil's Advocate. He watches, fascinated, as she grows limp in his arms. Defeated already?
He glances at her eyes, and is stunned by the expression he finds there.
Pity.
She pities him. She is crying, he realizes, for him.
And he is suddenly angered. This child, a human who is near death, dying, pities him, her torturer. How dare she?
So taken by anger as he presses Senbonzakura closer to her throat, causing a shallow cut to manifest on her formerly flawless skin, he did not catch her whisper.
"What did you say?" he demands. He forces himself to stare into her eyes, unwilling to back down. His fascination, loathing, attraction to this damned human girl.
He is floored by what she whispers for his ears again.
"You've sorely misplaced your Pride, Kuchiki-sama." He observes her tears, her eyes, the emotions within them silently. "If there is anything, anyone who deserves your Pride, Kuchiki-sama, it must be Kuchiki-san."
Byakuya stares at Orihime. He locks onto her tongue licking her dry lips. "There is nothing wrong with Pride in the right things, Kuchiki-sama, but Pride in the wrong things… well, they say, Pride comes before the Fall."
Orihime continues, aware of the sound of sword connecting with pavement and Rukia's continued endangered state. "Is it so wrong to give help to someone who needed it, who was in better shape physically to deliver out your task? … To love someone… To never have someone to love is so lonely. I never forget Sora-nii-chan because…" Orihime smiles through her tears at the stoic captain "because to love another person is… like seeing the face of God."
Orihime is not quite sure what happens next. She feels the vertigo of free fall as she is thrown away. As her back connects with the pavement, black spots stealing her vision, she feels pain in her shoulder.
Byakuya realizes he's trembling from anger after he launches White Lightning at her. His mind was in turmoil though no one else could see it. That child, that child, how dare she…
The fight ends quickly afterwards. Renji opens a Senkaimon back to Soul Society, towing Rukia behind him. Byakuya follows some time afterwards. No one questions the disappearance of his scarf, a Kuchiki family's heirloom passed down to each succeeding Head of the Clan.
What happened…
Kuchiki Byakuya gazes down at the bleeding girl. He has sent Renji and Rukia on, diverting his lieutenant's pronouncement to kill the strange ningen with the reason that she will bleed to death in half an hour.
Rukia had slapped her, told the girl she was weak, when she tried to restrain him, trembling fingers on his ankle. She must have sensed Rukia's hysteria as well as she did because hurt and pain aside, she smiled at his sister. Wordlessly, the healing shield came up again, enveloping him, Renji as well as Rukia.
"I know I am weak, Kuchiki-san. That is no excuse however for me not to try."
She collapses afterwards; her reiatsu drastically plunging though she remains vaguely conscious.
Byakuya makes sure the two are gone before he reaches for his scarf. For cutting him when others couldn't, for crying and pitying him, for explaining, for remind –
He drapes his scarf over her, the cornflower silk briefly shielding her from the rain coming down lightly.
He sees her watching through hazy, barely focused eyes. That won't do.
He kneels besides her, pressing his thumb lightly to a pressure point below her throat.
"You live up to your name, Weaving Princess."
He pressed down. Her body goes limp.
As he walks through the Senkaimon, he refuses to acknowledge why his heart unclenches when two speeding reiatsus head for the unconscious girl.
He does wonder though if he will ever see her again.
A/N Review, review, review!