Hey guys, really sorry about the late update, but this I think is the 4th time I have wrote this chapter. I know where I want it to go but I'm having trouble putting it a way that I like. So I'm sorry that its late and I'm sorry that it's not exactly quality writing. I hope that with it out the way as a transition chapter the rest will come a little easier.
Anyway let me know what you think and I shall endeavour to continue!
The day could not have passed any slower for Rukia. The book hidden in her drawer seemed to burn the wood that hosed it under the intensity of her anticipation. The day was filled with paperwork, and deployment administration for the division. Squad 13 was linked with 8 and 10, so there was administrative correlation to be done. As well as a report to the deputy captain of squad one on the transition of the deployment. And yes this was all exactly as boarding as it sounded!
The sun had begun to sink low in the sky by the time she had finished all the day's duty, and she sat on the chair of her new office and thought about what she was going to do next. Desperately she wanted to stay here in her office and read the journal, she had had a full day of waiting! However, working in partnership with division ten, meant being bombarded by deputy captain Matsumoto, and as big of a place Rukia held in her heart for the woman, right now she had no desire to have her bound into her office and demand her attendance at some party, or liquor establishment. So before she could be spirited away by the busty maiden, she packed up her items carefully put the journal in her gi and stole herself away, making in the direction of the Kuchiki manor. Only stopping momentarily or her way to inform Kiyone that if anyone should come looking for her she was engaged in Kuchiki business at the manor, and could not afford to be disturbed. The great thing about being a noble, she thought as she walked towards the manor, was that if you said you had business few where brave enough to interfere. Such a tale would put off all but Renji and Ichigo she thought.
She made it home in what seemed to be record time, and quickly greeting the manor staff, made straight for her bedroom and locked herself away for the night. She sighed contented in the peace and quiet of her chamber, and having dressed for bed, dared to again be taken in by the journal. The journal was of the same colour and size as the last, although it may have been a bit ticker. The pages where just as rich, and the writing although recognisably by the same hand, had matured into beautiful calligraphy. Rukia turned to the first page eager to pick up where she had left off. However, aside from the original message there was no explanation offered. Not even the slightest of hints as to how long had passed since the last book. All but that one small message was devoid of relation to the other journal. And Rukia dreaded to think what kind of man No One had grown to become, if indeed he was yet a man.
Hesitantly she began at the first entry, and soon all fears had been removed. The character of no one had changed little. Although clearly matured by age, he had the same sense of adventure, chivalry and nobility. Rukia could only assume him to be in his late adolescence, from the pages that she had so far read. He was now in the position of deputy captain, and wrote frequently about his aspiration to complete and maser his bankai. The Wearcat made no appearance in the new journal however, he seemed to have a new partner in crime. The new partner remained nameless referred to only as Him, He or His, but featured heavily in the journal, and Rukia had to believe that although it was never stated, they were best friends. The seemed to spend all of their free time together, training and although His wit matched No Ones, he would never be allowed the last laugh. He was a deputy captain rank also, and from the way they interacted with each other they had to have known each other for a long time, longer than just entering in Gotei 13. Rukia assumed him to be of noble rank, or one of the lesser noble families. However, the tales of no one and Him gave Rukia an awkward sense of deja vu that she could not place. No One's reactions to things, the way he spoke, the bravado and hot temper he showed in his everyday life, was something so familiar, but yet so unknown. It left Rukia with an uncomfortable longing of the sort that she was not sure she had felt before.
The new journal was a bigger insight into No One, his character spilled from the pages like water from a jug. He was hot tempered, quick witted and sharp tongued, But he was chivalrous and dutiful. However, what strike her the most about him was that he was funny. He had a sense of humour that Rukia had forgotten could exist outside the Rukongai. Since she had come to live in the Kuchiki manor her life had been devoid of the sort of humour that no one displayed. She had become high strung, quiet and altogether less flamboyant in her actions with others since she was adopted by the house. She could count on one hand the people in Seireitei that knew what a fun loving, hot headed, self richeous person she could be.
Renji, Ichigo, Kaien.
She saw something of all three in the character of No One. And again she felt that uncomfortable nostalgic pull at her heart.
By the time Rukia looked up from the book she was little over a third through it, and the night was so late she could see dawn on the horizon through her windows. So she put the book in the top drawer of her bedside cabinet, and resigned her self to sleep what little of the night was left.
What sleep she had had was uncomfortable, and haunted by her nostalgic longing. Dreams of No One and his adventures danced behind her sleeping eyelids as if she where there. Yet she could never fully see him. He still remained a mystery to her.
She woke early, tired and weary from what little troubled sleep she had had. She squirrelled the journal into her gi once she had been washed and dressed, and took it with her back to the barracks. When she got to her office, she hid it safely in the drawer it had occupied the day prior, and hoped that it would be out of sight out of mind. For for the first time since she had found the first journal, months before, a heavy weight weighed on her heart, and she dreaded opening the pages and falling further into its ink bound wonder. There was a longing in her heart that the journal had triggered, and she was unsure if it was a road she would want to go down. So in a desperate bid to delay the inevitable, she through herself headlong into the days work, hoping that the repetitive job of paperwork and administrative duties would tier her mind.
It was hopeless though, her mind kept reminding her of ways in witch no one reminded her of those closest to her. Renji, No One was dutiful and hard working, he was always training and striving for perfection in his work and mastery of his zanpakuto. And although the perfectionist part seemed a long way off of Renji, the aspiration and determination was so reminiscent of the man she considered to be as dear as family to her. It was the ways No One was like Ichigo and Kaien that troubled her more considerably.
Rukia had always maintained that she had no time for romantic sentiment. She had a job to do, and people she cared about dearly to protect. Love was a luxury that no one in the Rukongai could afford. This was how she felt before she mover to the Seireitei, and here it was unlikely to change. Her adoptive brother was living proof of how risky love was, to see what became of those left behind hardened her reserve and steeled her heart. But Kaien had melted it, if only slightly. He had been the only person that Rukia could even slightly entertain the idea of anything more than friendship or familial love. But he, as would be her luck, was spoken for. She had never felt bitter about that fact, she had always been happy for both of them. She had loved them both and would have done anything in her power to save either one of them. But they where gone now.
Ichigo was so much like him in so many ways. But he was so different, all at the same time. However, Rukia was so much older and wiser and . . . well more dead than Ichigo. The idea of romance between the two of them was comical to her. What they had was deep, and precious but purely platonic. And although No One was so like all three, he was some one else entirely.
Of all the three, only Kaien was a possible candidate for ownership of the journal. He had been of noble blood, once. He had been a lieutenant. And the journal was found in his room. But Rukia had never known Kaien to be a perfectionist. She was reluctant to put his face to No One's body.
She told herself that this was because she felt disrespectful reading her dead superiors diary. Witch had been true to a degree, but what she begrudged to admit to herself was that she really hoped the author of the journal was still out there, alive. Perhaps for the first time Rukia was willing to admit, if only to herself, to succumbing to romantic sentiment.