I was so happy with the result of the last chapter that I decided to update even sooner! Yay for updates! Onward, march!

Chapter 3: Introductions and Meeting Once Again

"Kuchiki-sama, what do you think of this set?"

"Kuchiki-sama, the silverware still needs to be approved…"

"Kuchiki-sama, do you really think that dress is appropriate?"

Will you all just shut the hell up! Rukia wanted to scream at every single person talking to her at this very moment. The multiple voices swirled inside her cranium, and she could just feel the migraine coming on.

She attempted to discreetly rub her forehead, trying to take the edge off the pain. She had no inkling as to why her brother left her in charge of these things. Maybe, just maybe, to distract her from the more business-like affairs? Well, whatever it was, it was starting to piss her off.

"That music list is fine, that setting is perfect, and Nii-sama had this dress picked out for me," She answered all of their questions in one breath, shocking them all by her sudden outburst. She needed air.

"I'll be in the courtyard if anyone needs me," her heels clicked slightly against the marble flooring, startling the servants and staff as they ran around to finish everything demanded of them.

She turned through at least five hallways to before finally arriving in the central courtyard. The mansion had been built around the greenery of the area. It opened directly to the heavens, but the sun was already beginning to set, resulting in a colorful paint smeared sky.

She sat on a bench in between two Sakura trees, bearing their beautiful green leaves. They may not be as famous as their pink counterparts, but Rukia liked them just the same. They still symbolized life, beauty, health…

Rukia shook her head, pain shooting through her skull as the bobby pins poked her sensitive skin. She needed to be prepping her mind for noble and wealthy warfare. The head of every major corporation would be at this mansion tonight, as well as all of their sons and daughters, the future generation of the business world. The adults were to be in one room, and the children in another. And Rukia, being the heir to quite possibly the most influential business in Japan, and maybe the world as well, had to interact with both.

The children were here to party, listening to music and enjoy food. The adults came to be manipulative, greedy bastards that only wanted to increase their standings. And she just had to smile and be polite while they looked at her like a piece of meat to married off to their sons.

Her eyes were closed, and she was rubbing her head so hard she didn't even notice the heavy footsteps approaching her perch. A tall body plopped down beside her.

"Can't deal huh?" She was shocked to hear his voice. Kaien had come to the garden as well, and a small stain spread across her cheeks of the thought of them alone.

"Uh…yeah. Too many people asking too many questions," She huffed slightly in indignation.

Kaien cracked that small smirk she had come to love. He was playing with her, and she knew it; he would make her spill whatever she was feeling and it was so easy too. She was an open book to him.

"Try thinking of them in their underwear: that always works for me when I had to make a speech at school."

She cocked her eyebrows and looked up at him with disdain. "Only problem is, this isn't a speech, and I'm not in school."

He pouted and looked back down at her. "So? Still doesn't mean it won't work."

She giggled at his facial expression. How easy it was to talk to him. He was the only person she knew who fully accepted her. Everyone else was scared to become too close, her family's status just too scary. But Kaien had made brash and bold entrance into her life from her first day of high school.

"Kuchiki-sama, Kuchiki-sama! Where are you?"

Rukia's ears perked up at the sound of her name. It seemed she was needed once again. She sighed and rose from her nest on the bench.

She smiled at Kaien and told him thanks. He merely looked back up at her, smirked, and replied with:

"Just don't overwork yourself Kuchiki."

She couldn't help but jog out blushing after that.

~/~/~

CLANG!

Ichigo's metal blade clashed ominously against Toushirou's smaller one. The two were training, as was everyone else, for their job later on that night. Ichigo twirled in a circle, attempting to strike Toushirou from behind. Knowing he would catch it in time though, placed his entire strength into the blow. Just as he had predicted, Toushirou placed his blade in time to parry the blow behind his back, his arm bending up and over his head. Using the fact that Toushirou's equilibrium was off, Ichigo twisted his blade into Toushirou's, causing the younger boy to stumble. Taking advantage of Toushirou's fall, swiveled and stuck his foot behind Toushirou's, causing him to flat out fall. To complete the match, Ichigo was about to stab to the side of Toushirou's head, but the smaller male rolled in the opposite direction, using momentum to bring himself back to his feet.

Ichigo snarled, and lashed out once again with his sword. Around him, he faintly noticed the spars around them, such as Renji and Ikkaku and then Tatsuki and Shuuhei. Renji and Ikkaku seemed determined to down at least two trees from the ring that protected their clearing. The maniacs had no concern of self-preservation, or of the preservation of the surrounding flora. Shuuhei was "fighting" Tatsuki, while really half-assing it to not harm her. Which just led to Tatsuki becoming completely pissed off. Even though, she was the only girl, Tatsuki could fight almost as well as anyone else in the group. Which, of course, led to Shuuhei's downfall, as Tatsuki swept his legs out from underneath him, causing him to fall down onto his butt. He was clearly embarrassed, and was now nursing his injuries in a corner.

"Okay guy, I think that's enough," He everyone ended their spar is they weren't finished already. The group stretched, trying to rid their aching limbs of their stiffness.

"Well, that was decent. We should be fine for tonight. Just be careful of guns and like; I don't think anyone is fast enough to outrun a bullet," The group smirked at his last statement.

Ichigo looked up at the clock tower, noting they had about an hour until they were due at their employers. And since they had to cut through another gang's territory to get to the richer area of town, they had to get going.

"Okay guys, let's go. We've got a long walk ahead of us."

~/~/~

After avoiding several crowds, a few cops, and one gang patrolling their territory, Ichigo and co. finally arrived in the gated area of Karakura, where the elite guarded themselves from the riff-raff of the city.

And it worked very well. A rock wall surrounded the enclosure, but was perfectly flat to prevent climbing. The only way in or out was manned twenty four-seven, with bullet-proof glass on all sides and the exit and entrance roads had gates that rose and fell with a push of a button from the guard, to keep out strange pedestrians and cars as well.

Everyone single one of Ichigo's siblings, including himself, was trembling just slightly with nervousness. Anyone of these people that lived here could turn them into the authorities if they just looked at them the wrong way.

Ichigo strode up to the gatehouse with determination, trying hard not give a hint of his fear.

"We're here to see Kuchiki Byakuya," the guard, a burly man with a thick beard and a thinning head of hair, looked at him incredulously, doubting that this common boy was there to see the richest man here.

"I don't think so son," The man's hand began to sneak down to his gun, as if to threaten Ichigo.

Ichigo growled under his breath. He hated being treated like a street rat, even if that's what he was. He was going to get a kick out of proving this man wrong.

"Well, you see sir," Ichigo taunted the man, pulling out the note Urahara had given him, just in case, "I have Byakuya's signature right here. And I don't think he'll be too happy if you keep his ahem, guests, waiting," Ichigo smirked as the man grabbed the slip, and watched as the man's bearded face changed from red to white.

"Well, uh, everything here seems to be in order," The guard gulped, pressing the button to lower the gate protecting the neighborhood. Ichigo walked through the entrance smugly, while everyone followed behind, sending a few glares at the guard.

Now that they were inside, by force of habit mostly, the quickly jogged through the neighborhood, gazing in awe at the size of these houses. They varied slightly in size, but they seemed to grow gradually as they headed towards the center of the area.

After taking a few wrong turns—the place was huge, even if only the supremely rich could live there—the group finally arrived at the Kuchiki household. And damn, the place was enormous. It completely towered over all of the surrounding buildings, and definitely occupied the most land. The front door wasn't even visible from the end of the driveway for Kami's sake!

Ichigo looked back at his team, all of them with large eyes and unhinged jaws. He scowled at them, mostly because they had a reason to be astonished like this. The entire gravel driveway was lined with Sakura trees, groomed to perfection. The lawn behind it expanded for what seemed miles, and each blade was precisely cut. There were sporadic gardens with native and foreign flowers placed on the lawn. And then there was the house itself.

The building had to be at least four stories tall, if not more. It extended so far back that its full depth could not be grasped. It was built with a more western look to it than a traditional Japanese home, but the architecture had some definite influences. The wrought-iron gate was thrown wide open in preparation for the guests that would be arriving soon.

Ichigo turned back to them. "I guess we better get going," With that, he turned towards the drive and began to run.

~/~/~

"Okay, so at seven, everyone will gather in the grand hall for dinner. Oh, make sure that the Matsumoto's and the Ichimaru's are separated. I think there might be some feud going on right now—"

"Kuchiki-sama, Kuchiki-sama!"

Rukia's eye twitched and vein began to become pronounced in her forehead. She was beginning to find that her name being repeated over and over again by servants who couldn't think for themselves was starting to get annoying. "Yes?"

A maid came up to her with a deep bow and said, "There are visitors at the door. They said they are here to meet your brother, but we were instructed to not let anyone speak to him until the festivities began. Shall I send them away?"

"No, I'll go see them," She sent the maid away with a nod and the servant she had been talking to away as well. Then, taking way too many complicated hallways to remember unless you had memorized a map beforehand (which was exactly what she had done when she had moved in with her brother), she arrived at the front door where a group of teenagers were standing, with a fearful maid trying to force them through the doorway.

"Uh, please sir, you really shouldn't be in here until Kuchiki-sama says it is okay…" She stopped as the leader with orange hair looked down on her.

"Look, I really don't care. We were told to be here by five, and we're here. So can we just see this Byakuya guy already?" Rukia could tell that the boy was becoming impatient. His eyebrows were dangerously close to touching from his scowl, and his entire posture was tensed. She noted his ridiculously orange hair, and how it was probably died. She noticed a few other strange hairstyles, but couldn't match any faces to them, as they were hidden behind Ichigo. She decided this would be a good time to make herself known.

"Nii-sama is busy at the moment. But I think I could help you," She noticed the entire group turn towards her voice. The first thing she noticed was that the party was almost completely male, except for one girl who looked like she could definitely defend herself. As did all of the boys in the group. Also, they all seemed to about her age, seventeen, except for one boy that seemed about fifteen.

And then she noticed the red hair, the tattoos, the much defined face… and then it clicked.

"Renji!"

"Rukia!"

They had called each other's name at the same time, and then Rukia found that her feet were no longer touching the ground and the walls were spinning. Renji had dashed towards her, picked her up, and had begun to spin in circles as a few of the maids or servants in the area gasped, and Renji's friends rolled their eyes and relaxed slightly.

"Renji! Put me you down you baboon!" Rukia couldn't help but laugh. She tried to be mad at him, but it had been so long since they had seen each other… she probably would have done the same thing if she had the muscle mass to lift him.

"Oi, Renji, put the girl down. She's the one paying us you know," Renji sent a death glare towards Toushirou, who was the one who had decided to become the commentator.

"Shut it Shiro. Can't you see I'm getting reacquainted here?" After about five seconds he seemed to realize that he was the only there that new Rukia personally.

"Oh everyone this is Kuchiki Rukia. She was a street rat like us at one time," Rukia delivered a swift elbow to his ribcage.

"Don't say street rat, its rude," Rukia straightened her spine while Renji doubled over. "Hello, as the moron said before, my name is Kuchiki Rukia. But as I said before, Nii-sama is busy. So how can I help you?"

The one with the orange hair spoke next. "Your brother hired us. He said he needed more guards for tonight or something, and well, here we are," He shrugged and motioned towards his group.

Rukia glared at the carrot-top. "You know, it's universally polite to introduce yourself and your partners before jumping the gun."

Ichigo's scowl deepened. "Fine then. Hajimeshite, Boku wa Kurosaki Ichigo da ze. Douzo yoroshiku," He finished with an over-done bow. "This is Hitsugaya Toushirou, Hisagi Shuuhei, Madarame Ikkaku, and Arisawa Tatsuki. You already know Renji apparently."

Rukia was very, very tempted to punch him in the gut. "And for future reference, you should refrain from using such impolite speech in front of your employers." She sent an icy gaze towards him, and then turned around. "Well, if you all follow me, we can—"

At that moment, one of the most imposing figures walked down the posh staircase. Tall and classically dark hair, the man was the epitome of a noble family. His carriage, his hair, right down to the very expression on his face, just screamed I'm better than you.

Everyone, including Rukia, tensed as the man descended. Ichigo on the other hand, just became irritated. He knew that this man had more money than he could ever dream of even seeing, but he could probably kick his ass any day. He had to stop himself from grasping the hilt of his katana, and to stay calm and not say anything that would lose them the money.

"I am Kuchiki Byakuya. I am assuming that you are the team Urahara sent?" Ichigo nodded while the others uncomfortably shifted behind him.

"Yeah," as Byakuya finished his decline, Ichigo noticed that the much older man only had maybe half a head on him. Sure, he seemed in shape for someone his age, but it shouldn't be too hard to take him down.

Byakuya scrutinized the team. "You'll do," He turned back, heading back towards where he came from.

"Follow me. We will discuss your assignment further in my study," He made true motion for them to follow, only ascending the staircase. Ichigo nodded his head towards the staircase, his siblings following him. Rukia made to follow as well, but was stopped when Byakuya called down to her, "Rukia, I believe that the chefs need to know if everything has been made for tonight. Would you please check in on them?"

Rukia looked up to him, confused for a nanosecond. Then she realized what her brother had said, and then left them alone, annoyed and slightly hurt.

"If you would follow me," Byakuya began the climb up the spiraling staircase once again, with Ichigo and the rest following.

~/~/~

Yay! I finished chapter three! I didn't think I would finish it this fast. But I thankfully did, and now I have to write the next chapters for Kidnapped and for Who You Are… well, not tonight. I'm going to go see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra! WOOT! Jaa nee!