Chapter 3

Meeting

"Yuzu and Karin are alive?!"

For a few seconds Ichigo just stood there gaping, as if a statue had replaced him instead. The question hung in the tense air around them as Tatsuki and Chad stood up as well, not expecting the reaction. There were question marks all over their faces. For Ichigo, if there was anything that was unbelievable to him at that moment, it was the fact that his sisters were alive. His eyes were wide in shock, ready to pop out of its sockets. His mouth opened and closed, unable to get the million thoughts that were gathering inside his mind out to be spoken. A part of him was exploding in joy and dying to meet them but another part of him was unable to believe those words. How did they survive the Great Famine?

"Ichigo, don't tell me you thought they died in 'that' incident?" Tatsuki peered into his face observingly.

The Great Famine: a famine that occurred in the land, where Karakura and Seireitei were, a few years ago. That was during the beginning years of the tyrannical rule of Ginrei over Karakura. The residents of Karakura were made to work vigorously – even women and children – for countering the widespread starvation in the land as a result of which, the people in Seireitei were hardly able to survive while the people of Karakura, especially the enslaved, died of starvation and heavy labour. Ichigo saw with his very eyes, the names of his sisters in the list of people reported dead during the drudgery. It was a priest's interpretation regarding the incident that reduced the tyranny Seireitei practiced over Karakura: "This is the pronounced punishment in the scriptures that would befall, should injustice be practiced to extreme extents in this land," or so he had said.

"Wha… What do you mean?" Ichigo asked.

Tatsuki sighed. "You're partly right in your assumptions, Ichigo. We heard of the reports too, and I told my mom that I'd at least be responsible to bury their bodies if I didn't find them alive. But," she breathed deeply, glancing at the sky.

"But?" Ichigo felt impatient.

"But I didn't find them at all after searching for hours. I was on the verge of giving up when I spotted two silhouettes lying on the place where you see as an abandoned beach now," the three of them peered at the seeming outlines of waves that were splashing on the shore in the far distance. "I was surprised to see someone already nursing them. He was giving them water bit by bit so that their health wouldn't be damaged. According to him, the two were taking their last breaths when he saw them, but were miraculously getting better by the minute. I insisted on taking care of them but it seems like he knows something that we don't." Tatsuki began walking towards the direction of the beach and Chad and Ichigo followed closely behind.

"By 'him' you mean?" Ichigo inquired.

Tatsuki didn't reply. Instead, she continued, "He said that it was the safest for your sisters if he took care of them, and I didn't bother to question further since that man definitely knew something."

"Was 'he' Da-"

"Ah, Kurosaki-san, you finally dropped by!" Ichigo and the others turned around to see a middle-aged man, with a cane and wearing a hat with white and green stripes, grinning at them.

"Urahara-san!" Tatsuki beamed. "How are Yuzu and Karin?"

"Eh?" astonishment flowed through Ichigo's body.

"They're doing great!" the man beamed but then his expression turned serious.

"Do you want to see them, Kurosaki-san?"

Ichigo twitched a little. He was still unable to grasp what was going on. He didn't totally understand what Tatsuki said, and now, some stranger Hats and Clogs person who came from God-knew-where was asking him if he wanted to meet his sisters. Worse, Tatsuki seemed to know him as well.

"What the hell is going on here?!" Ichigo yelled. His brain was after all, overloaded with things to process. Pin-drop silence filled the atmosphere for a few minutes before the other three burst into chuckles.

"Save the explanation for later, shall we?" he said, "Let's gooo!" the strange man beamed and started walking. Tatsuki and Chad followed him and thus, Ichigo too followed them. "Hey, Tatsuki," he said.

"What?" Tatsuki replied turning her head to look at him.

"Who is that?" he asked.

"Oh him? He's the guy I was talking about just a while ago; the guy who saved your sisters," she explained. Ichigo left a heavy audible sigh as the overloaded input for his brain suddenly dissolved away. "He's one hell of a weird shopkeeper, you better keep away from him when it comes to business," Tatsuki added, a mixture of hilarity and annoyance in her voice, "He nearly sold me a poison once, when I asked for an ointment for broken joints."

"Broken joints?" Ichigo gaped.

"What? I'm a karate student, idiot," she said as-a-matter-of-factly.

"That's right," Ichigo said mentally slapping himself for being unable to grasp the oh-so-obvious fact. It also made him feel remorse for the fact that he had enjoyed the luxury of royal life whilst his friends have been training hard to the extent of almost killing themselves. His sisters had been starving to death with no one to protect them. He wasn't there for them. Instead, a total weirdo stranger had saved them. Ichigo clenched his fists and held the tears of regret from falling down.

"We're here!" The shopkeeper beamed as they reached the so called shop of his. It looked more like a traditional Japanese house except that it was situated on the abandoned beach they saw earlier. Ichigo found it quite odd, maybe because a shop was in an abandoned area. It's safe much though… he decided. He supported his weight on the wooden stair-rod, panting hard while Tatsuki and Chad wiped sweat off their forehead.

Ichigo felt an urgent need to bath in very cold water for three hours. THIS IS IT! NO MORE WALKING! He yelled in his head as the "weird shopkeeper" ascended the five stairs that led to the sliding door and swished it open. "Yuzu-chan, Karin-chan! We've got a guest!"

Footsteps were heard and two girls popped their heads from the living room.

"Urahara-san? Welcome home!" The twins beamed but stopped when they caught a glimpse of bright orange hair coming into view from behind the said man. "I-Ichi-nii?"

Ichigo was dumbfounded. He was just composing himself when the girls noticed him and he lost his composure again. Ten years had passed since he last saw those innocent faces and yet… They still remembered him… Right now, all he wanted to do was to grab his sisters and cry his heart out. He just couldn't bear it.

"Ichi-nii, is that really you?" the girls walked past Urahara and up to him and glanced up with innocent eyes. A teardrop fell on the tip of Yuzu's nose. "Huh?" she gasped slightly.

"You are okay…" Ichigo spoke, tears helplessly pouring down his cheeks. He kneeled down and caught his sisters in a tight embrace. "Yuzu… Karin… you are both okay… I'm so glad… I missed you so much… I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you… I'm really sorry…"

Yuzu and Karin both glanced at each other and smiled wide. "We missed you too, Ichi-nii! We're so glad you came!"

Ichigo felt better afterwards. He wiped his eyes and smiled at his sisters. "How have you been doing?" He asked.

"We've been doing great! How are you, Onii-chan?" they beamed.

Ichigo sighed, feeling glad to see his sisters at the peak of good health and cheer. His sisters were doing better than he expected and that was all he wanted. He felt all the regret fading away, just knowing that they were okay, and that they had no grudges against him.

"I'm fine too," Ichigo smiled warmly.

"Is Ichi-nii going to stay here forever now?" the twins asked in unison, hope shining in their innocent eyes.

"Y-yes…" Ichigo replied although he wasn't sure. He didn't want to leave. But if that stupid mission took too long, stupid Seireitei might chase after me… he thought.

"Well, I think Kurosaki-san needs a rest, after that long journey here. Shall we?" Urahara-san excused them.

"You think?!" Ichigo blurted out, which made everyone laugh again.

"Yeah… See you around, Ichigo!" Tatsuki waved to him descending down the stairs and walking away.

"Yes," Chad nodded following the tomboy.

"Yeah, catch you later guys!" Ichigo waved them back. He sighed, suddenly feeling free from all that worrisome chains that seemed to have bound him. "So where should I stay?" Ichigo asked.

"In that spare room!" Yuzu said pointing to an average sized room in the far corner of the house. "Take a rest first and then we can have dinner together!"

"Who's cooking?" Ichigo asked a bit surprised.

"Meee!" Yuzu spun around on a heel.

"Really? You guys have really grown!" Ichigo ruffled his sisters' hair.

"Well then, I'm gonna rest! See you at dinner time!" Ichigo took a few steps towards his room, but changed his mind and sprinted toward the seaside instead. He decided to cool himself in the water before allowing himself to drown in sleep. He was totally worn-out.

"Ichigo…"

Huh?

"Ichigo…"

Who? He rolled over in his sleep.

"Oi Ichigo! You idiot!" Ichigo jumped up on his bed, clutching his head in pain. "What the heck was that for Rukia!?" He paused for a while. Rukia? When did she come here? Wasn't that the weird dream again? Or Was he mixing dream and reality?

He looked around. Damn right he was; standing on the windowsill of his room was the midget he- Ichigo shook his head.

"Rukia! What the heck are you doing here!?"

Rukia let out a confident laugh. Realisation hit Ichigo just then.

"Wait, I should actually be questioning why you are here! You- Rukia! You're a princess! Oh my god, I forgot! What the heck are you doing here?!" Ichigo babbled. Minute by minute, the said lass's expression was wrinkling and she finally bumped her forehead into Ichigo and he fell down on the bed.

"Shut up fool! Or do you want everyone to know I'm here?! Remember? Seireitei soldiers never cease looking for suspicious people! Seriously!" She face palmed.

Ichigo stared at her for a while, still - confused - happy - mazed. Yes, that was the right word – he was stuck in a maze of questions, not knowing which one to ask. "What are you doing here anyway?" he ended up asking.

Rukia looked up. She jumped and landed in the middle of the room.

"And what's with that warrior-like outfit? You look like a man or rather, a terrorist," he teased as well.

Rukia stiffened. "What did you say?!"

Ichigo simply chuckled.

"Well, I just… wanted to come…" Rukia stuttered seeking for a believable reason. She miserably failed.

Ichigo sat up. "That's the reason? That's the dumbest reason I've ever heard!" he stifled a giggle.

"Hmph!" Rukia sulked. "I don't really know," she said.

"What? You're the PRINCESS for god's sake, Rukia! You cannot just escape from the palace just because you wanted to- wait, you ESCAPED?" Ichigo was now standing. Did something called sleep happen today?

Rukia innocently nodded. "WHY?" Ichigo's voice was being raised by the minute.

"I don't know, idiot! Stop yelling! Are you going to turn me deaf?!" Rukia covered her ears sarcastically.

Ichigo glared the words at her. Rukia understood, sighing.

"Fine! I will EXPLAIN. I don't know the exact reason, but I just felt like coming. I told Renji about it, and he was on my side. He helped me escape and made up a story with Nii-sama, like, I wanted to spend some time with some friends in the city and stuff. Nothing bad has happened so far," she smiled nervously. Tough attitude was not helping her at all when it came to things like this. Ichigo groaned face-palming.

"Besides, I couldn't let you uncover everything on your own. I'm curious myself. And you didn't even say a proper goodbye!" Rukia poked her tongue out. Ichigo saw this and smirked a little.

"You know perfectly well, why I didn't bother to say a proper goodbye. Besides curiosity killed the cat, you know," Ichigo continued teasingly, "and put that thing in or I'll make a better use of it."

Rukia blinked and looked at the tip of her tongue before blinking again and registering what Ichigo said. She threw the nearest thing she could grab, which was a book, towards Ichigo and yelled, "You pervert!"

Bull's eye!

Ichigo grabbed the book that hit his nose and yelled back. "Stop hitting me Rukia! My bones hurt!"

Rukia only laughed.

"And that's your disguise? I'm betting on everything in this world that the story of yours will not be good enough to trick Byakuya and Ginrei of all the people in the Universe," he reasoned.

"So what? I said I'm curious, right?" Rukia was now sitting on the wooden floor tracing unknown figures on it, "Stop questioning already. You'd have to buy me a Chappy doll if your bet isn't correct," she poked her tongue again, but this time with caution.

Ichigo fell back on the bed as the sleep which disappeared nowhere dawned on him again. "Do whatever you want, just don't get me into any mess you make," he said lying down and pulling up the covers.

"Nobody asked you to," Rukia giggled at the victory when she heard Ichigo huff in reply.

Outside, Urahara Kisuke gasped as he recognized the sudden feminine voice coming from Ichigo's room. Princess Rukia?! No wonder why the soldiers in the city are causing so much commotion!

I decided not to change much of the content in this chapter and instead work on extending the scenes. Eh… let's see… DID I MESS IT UP or what? *nervous smile* I also postponed Urahara's details and explanations to Ichigo to after chapter 4; shall we see what's going on in Seireitei instead since Rukia's here?

Thanks for the extra follow, IllustratingAuthoress. And Hunterofcomedy: I replied to your review in the PM! ;D

By the way, guys! I was thinking: what should Quincies' role be in this story? Rulers of Karakura in the past or some other separate Kingdom? Leave a review? :*

Sneak-a-peek!

"What have you got to say about this, Renji Abarai?" Byakuya Kuchiki commanded gesturing at the page on his work table. His expression was dead serious.

"I–I can explain…" Renji stuttered although he didn't even know where to start.

Mata ne! ;)

TomoMee~