Two months earlier
Rukia didn't just run, she flew...at least it felt like flying. Her whole body seemed to be numb, so she couldn't feel her Gigai's feet pounding against the ground, or the branches that whipped at her cheeks. As she raced along, she tried to keep her mind off of the one thought that kept forcing itself into her head: the fact that she had one hope left. Why hadn't she learned more healing? Now all she could do was rely on something she'd heard of from...well at the moment she didn't quite remember, nor did she particularly care to. She just remembered hearing that a human soul had a strong connection to their body if the soul-chain remained intact, and that if separated, they could often survive what they otherwise couldn't if joined together again.
"Oh please!" she whispered to herself, jumping over some particularly uneven ground and dodging around a few of the extremely well manicured trees. "Don't you leave now, you idiot!" She hissed to the orange-haired, lolling head on her shoulder. She wished she was bigger so she could carry him better, but due to her hight and strength (especially in her gegai) the best option for her had been trying to get him back to his body on her back, awkward as even that was.
She felt the tears come to her eyes as she continued to rush forward, heading towards the building she'd instructed Kon to take Karin and Yuzu after the King Fisher's attack, half to escape from the oncoming rain and half to let the girls recover. She ignored feeling of her Shinigami strength coming back to her. The fact that she could carry Ichigo, let alone run through the forrest at this speed told her that (not a good sign).
She dashed through the woods, her eyes fixed intently ahead of her on the small, house-like building that had just come into view. Quickly, her eyes took in the situation. Kon sat on the porch, looking over at Karin and Yuzu, while Ichigo's father leaned against one of the front structure beams, looking out at the rain. She almost winced, knowing that they'd have a lot of explaining to do to his father, but Ichigo's life was more important at the moment. Once he knew everything, he'd agree.
"KON!" She shouted. Immediately Ichigo's body looked towards her, and his eyes widened in confusion. "KON! OUT! NOW!" Whether from the look on her face combined with Ichigo on her back, or the sight of Ichigo alone, he didn't argue. He reached a hand inside his mouth, and after a little struggling, pulled out the little, green orb. Immediately, the body fell to the ground. Ichigo's father looked nothing short of shocked at that. Then, his face hardened when he saw Rukia come dashing up to them at a fairly unnatural speed (and carrying something he couldn't see on her back).
"No..." he whispered and fell down next to Ichigo's body, checking for a pulse. Rukia stopped in front of them, carefully shifting Ichigo off of her back.
"I'm sorry," she huffed, "but I'll have to explain later!" With that, she pushed Ichigo's spirit into his body, watching it disappear as they melded together.
Both Rukia and Isshin gazed worriedly down at the body. "Come on, Ichigo," Rukia whispered. That seemed to jar his father out of whatever shock he'd gone into, and he shot his hand forward, feeling desperately for a pulse again.
"He's not breathing, and I can't get a heartbeat!" he said. "Call an ambulance!" He didn't even wait for Rukia to reply and started CPR.
Rukia fumbled for her phone, barely catching it and tuned it into the human world's frequency, then called the local hospital as quickly as he fingers could dial.
Then she heard something behind her that froze her blood in her veins. "I—Ichi-nii?" 'No!' she thought. 'They've been through enough today! The last thing they need to see is this!' Yuzu knelt near the wall, looking frightened as she stared in shock over at her father and brother. "Ichi-nii! Daddy, what's wrong?!"
"Yuzu, stay back!" her father commanded between pumping his son's chest.
"--ou have an emergency?" Rukia realized that someone had picked up, and brought herself back to the task at hand, just catching the tail end of someone speaking to her from the phone.
"Yes," she said. "My friend...he's not breathing! We need an ambulance, right away!"
"Very well, tell me the address," the operator said in a soothing voice, obviously trying to calm Rukia down, although the Shinigami thought herself to be rather calm under the circumstances. She'd been far more panicked when Kien...no! She wrenched her mind away from that train of thought, instead nodding(despite the fact that she knew the other couldn't see) at the operator's pause, and gave them the address of the cemetery.
Somehow, she managed to give the woman all the information needed (how many people were there, that no one else was hurt, that someone had already started resuscitation procedure, and that he'd been attacked by someone with a knife as the wounds had already begun to appear on the young man's body. Apparently human souls did that. Shinigami to Gigai didn't), but she seemed to hear the voice on the other end of the phone as if it came to her from the other end of a long tunnel and vaguely realized her own voice sounded a little strange to her too. After a few minutes, the entire world just faded away, leaving Rukia suspended in darkness.
She didn't remember the most of the conversation with the woman, nor did she recall the Ambulance showing up. As soon as they arrived, the whole hillside burst into activity as people hurried over to Ichigo and back to the vehicle before checking everyone else, and then going back to Ichigo. The whole thing, she guessed vaguely inside her shocked mind, would only look organized to someone who had become familiar with this line of work. Somewhere along the line, someone had relieved Mr. Kurosaki from his desperate attempt to keep his son alive, and he stood, looking on with a grim expression.
She simply sat on the porch and watched, holding Yuzu who (despite the fact that she didn't know who Rukia was) had wrapped her arms around the older girl's stomach, and clutched Rukia's dress as she cried. Karin (who had woken up only minutes before the ambulance arrived), on the other hand, knelt stock still, looking on with blank, vague eyes.
"He saved me...he saved me..." she kept whispering.
After what seemed like forever (but probably wasn't more than only a few minutes), they loaded Ichigo into the ambulance. After some minor finagling, Isshin was able to get them to allow Karin and Yuzu to ride with Ichigo in the ambulance (although the condition was only for the front seat) while Rukia and Isshin would follow shortly thereafter in the Kurosaki's car.
"Come on," Mr. Kurosaki said tersely to Rukia and then took off down the hill with the Shinigami on his heels.
They reached the car in what seemed like no time. Rukia ran around to the passenger's side, while Ichigo's father hurried to the right side of the car. He didn't say anything to her until they'd reached the street.
"Have your powers returned?" he asked her suddenly.
Rukia couldn't help but jump and stare at the older-looking man in shock. "Wait, how--?"
"I've known about my son receiving Shinigami powers almost from the beginning, and I know a great deal about the Soul Society. I allowed this to go on for reasons of my own, but take my word when I say I did know, so there is no use hiding anything from me." Rukia couldn't believe her ears. How could a human know anything about the Soul Society and Shinigami? "You lent my son Shinigami powers, did you not?" he turned to look at her with an expression that would make her brother proud. "Through a forbidden technique, if I'm not mistaken."
"Y-yes..." Rukia blinked, her mind screaming at her, and refusing to grasp all of theses shocks that had been thrust at her.
"Have your powers returned?"
Rukia felt her heart sink at that, and closed her eyes, feeling the tears come again. "Yes."
She didn't have to watch him to know that he too had lost any hope he'd previously had. With that, he tossed Kon's little, green pill at Rukia, who caught it deftly. "Take this," he said.
Rukia nodded, trying to hide the tears that had again come to her eyes. How had she grown so attached to this human in such a short amount of time? Was it his resemblance to Kien? No, she may have originally been tainted by that line of thought, but now she knew better. How was this...this human able to suck her into all of these emotions? What would her brother say?
"I—I'm so sorry!" she whispered. She her fingers clutching her dress tighten and tried (rather unsuccessfully) to keep the sobs back. "I had no other choice at the time! It was either--"
"Don't be sorry," she heard Ichigo's father's voice interrupt her softly. "From what I hear, you saved not only my son that night, but Karin and Yuzu as well. If anything, I'm thankful to you." She turned slowly to look at him through her tears, only to see he had his own forming in his eyes. "I will admit, none of this went according to plan..."
"Plan?" Rukia couldn't help but ask it.
Isshin sighed. "Please, don't ever tell anyone in the Soul Society about me, or about this conversation at all. Not your dearest friend, not your Captain, not your older brother, no one." If she'd been shocked before, she nearly went into a coma at that. He knew about her being adopted into the Kuchiki clan? The fact that he knew about the Soul Society could probably be explained away somehow...but a live human knowing specifics...it was unheard of! "I can't tell you who I am," he continued, "or why I know all of this. Just know, that it would be best for you if you could go back to the Soul Society as soon as possible, and just forget any of this ever happened."
Rukia thought about that for a moment. It was the least she could do for the pain she'd caused this family. So, silently, she nodded, and took out her cell-phone.
She dialed the number she'd been so afraid of for the last month and a half, and tried to calm her nerves. Finally someone picked up on the other line.
"This is Kuchiki Rukia," she said softly, "of the 13th devision, requesting and escort back to the Soul Society."
Shocked silence from the other end was all she heard for several seconds, but then a rather nasily voice responded. "Y-yes, of course. We are going to need coordinates, position and a meeting time."
Rukia related the position to be at the hospital half-an-hour after she hung up. They agreed, knowing it would be more than enough time to actually find an escort.
They rode the rest of the way to the hospital in silence. When they got there, they quickly found Yuzu and Karin, and she introduced herself to them as a friend of Ichigo's from school.
No sooner did she do that, then she knew she had to go. Bidding them goodbye, she quietly bowed out, and walked to the nearest bathroom. Taking a breath, she walked over to the sink, and grabbed a paper towel, dabbing it over her eyes. The last thing she wanted to do was show her brother she'd been crying...that she'd been sucked into human emotions again.
Thankfully, the bathroom was empty when the doors to the Soul Society opened behind her, having focused on her position.
Then, she turned and walked with the waiting Shinigami (not really seeing his/her face) to face her punishment, knowing in her heart that it would never be anything close to what she deserved for what she'd done to this family.
xXx
Please, be as harsh as you like. Thank you.
