Zaraki Kenpachi's Decision to Save the Day: The Cause
By Bunnisteffi
Rating: K+
Warning(s): Spoilers up to Bleach Chapter 297
Character(s)/Paring(s): Zaraki Kenpachi, Kusajishi Yachiru / IchiRuki
Summary: What had made Ken-chan appear suddenly, just in the nick of time, to shout 'Ichigo!'? Zaraki Kenpachi's Decision... is Bunnisteffi's take on the reason why he'd done so.
Disclaimer: Bleach is not mine. Kenpachi is not mine. Yachiru is not mine. IchiRuki, most disappointingly, isn't mine either. (Damn.) They all belong to Kubo Tite.
Rumours spread pretty quickly in seireitei, and the scant true ones reach the ears of the taichous even faster than the speed of shunpo.
When the 11th Division taichou first heard that the former-ryoka had disobeyed Old Man Yama's orders by going into Hueco Mundo to save the traitorous Inoue Orihime, at the same time dragging some of the Soul Society's key ally-fighters along, he was hardly worried, nor had he felt an urge to deprecate Ichigo's actions.
In fact, he had thought, "That boy sure has guts. I approve!"
Moments later, Kusajishi Yachiru burst into her taichou's quarters (it is unknown why she wasn't perched on his shoulder all this while), shrieking, "Ken-chan! Ken-chan!"
Kenpachi, who had been sitting at his desk, working on his reports (or at least, trying to give off the appearance of doing so), looked up.
Gruffly, he asked the pink-haired girl, "What?"
"Ken-chan's friend is in trouble! He's goin' to be killed!" Yachiru fluttered her arms wildly as she said this.
In trouble?
"How the hell do you know that?"
Just where had she gone, to know all this? A quarter of an hour just ain't enough to rush to the real world and…
Yachiru gabbled on, "By intuition, of course! C'mon, Ken-chan! We have to save him!"
She was now at his side, grabbing the rough cloth of his taichou's haori (Of course it would be rough; it'd gone through that many washings to be rid of those offensive stains.). Kenpachi immediately stood up. Small as she was, he knew that if she were to start tugging, he would have to take the trouble to secretly procure yet another similar-looking haori. (To this day, nobody, except for Yachiru and Kenpachi himself, has realised that his current haori is not the original that he had won from the previous 11th Division taichou.)
"Why do we have to go save him? He's strong, ain't he?" Kenpachi actually sounded sulky.
They both understood what he had meant by 'strong'. After a couple of months, Kenpachi was still smarting from having been defeated by the smaller orange-haired substitute shinigami. Yachiru gladly used this to her advantage (and eventually, it would be his, too).
Yachiru clapsed her hands to her back, and started circling the larger, weathered-looking tatterdemalion. "But that is precisely why you would have to rescue him!"
Before her taichou could ask why, she continued, "You want to fight him again, don't you? You want to prove that you're stronger, right? If you were to get Ichi-chan back, he would be forever grateful to you, wouldn't he? Ichi-chan is that kinda person; if you help him once, he will do whatever you say, Ken-chan!"
It is highly questionable how Yachiru came to know Ichi-chan's character so well. Even more mootable is the fukutaichou's assumption that Ichigo would be appreciative of their delivering him from danger's path. But Kenpachi was not one who doubted either or both of the above. All he did was to grunt in agreement.
"Saving Midget and Jiggly and Pencil and the rest is important, too!"
Huh?
"Especially Midget-chan!"
He was now really puzzled. Kenpachi correctly identified 'Jiggly' as Inoue, and 'Pencil' was obviously the Quincy, but 'Midget'…?
He looked down at the busily orbiting Yachiru, asking in a rather incredulous tone, "Kuchiki's sister?"
The pink-haired girl nodded emphatically," Yes! Of course we'll have to bring Midget-chan back, too. Then Ken-chan can fight your buddy indefinitely!"
"What?"
How does that even make sense?
"When Ichi-chan marries Midget-chan, he will stay in seireitei forever, Ken-chan," said Yachiru seriously.
Kenpachi balked. He had no idea that his young companion was already interested is these sort of things. However, as he turned her words over and over in his mind…
Zaraki Kenpachi, the 11th Division's taichou (which is to say, the Ruthless Tyrant-Chief of Soul Society's very own Rowdymen), grinned wolfishly.
"I see. Let's go save Ichi-chan and his Midget-chan, then."
Yachiru had by now managed to, without Kenpachi's realisation, herd him to the doorway.
She beamed up at her Ken-chan. "Knew you'd agree."
The smallish fukutaichou leapt skillfully unto the back of the sinewy taichou. With the billow of a ragged haori, the duo sped off to save the day.
Author's note: Enjoyed that? Short, isn't it? But I'd been upset over Rukia being treated like a cockroach (The IchiRuki BA FC bore the brunt of my rantings, together with my DHSAC junior, Marcus. Thanks, you guys, for putting up with it.) in 297, and decided to cheer myself up by writing this story, which I'd posted first on my Blogger account. If you'd like it, please send me a review. If you hadn't, review, too. Hahas.