Happy 4'th of July fellow Americans! Another short transitory chapter. I know there's not been much perspective, not much insight into the minds of most, but i've got to get a little bit of introductory stuff out of the way. I promise there'll be entire chapters dedicated to varying people's perspectives.
Thanks again for the reviews! Special thanks to marislily for correcting me on Kuchiki. The place i looked up the spelling was wrong p And no, Ichigo and Rukia are not lovers...yet.
Just a small bit of backstory that i've just now added to the first chapter, the time period is not to terribly long after the Winter War. Ichigo and Rukia have gone back to living in the real world as friends. Squad 9 has a new captain, though i haven't decided on his name yet. The third squad, of course, has Shusuke Amagai. Hence the 14 chairs in ch 3 (12 captains, ichi, ruki). 5'th squad doesn't have a captain...yet. That's pretty much it.
Thanks for reading )
"A room has been set up for you in the Kuchiki house, compliments of Commander Yamamoto. The servants will assist you in settling in. Try not to get in anyone's way."
"Oh uncle." Anju read the note to herself and shook her head. She should have expected his cold, unwelcome demeanor, but couldn't help but hope that perhaps he could be less of a prick in this time. Sighing, she put the letter away and looked up to see Rukia looking down at her with a smile. She couldn't read the expression on her face, and feared that it might contain some of the sentiments that her brother held. Much to her relief, Rukia held out the same hand she had earlier and said "Lets go home."
Anju felt relief flow through her body, and reached out to take Rukia's hand, only to have her hand slapped away. She looked up in shock to see Ichigo instead of Rukia. He had stepped in front of the petite shinigami and was refusing to allow things to go smoothly.
"Listen you little twerp, you may fool the others, but you can't fool me. I don't know who you really are, or why you're here but stay out of our way. Got it?" His voice contained fear and confusion instead of malice and although this comforted Anju to some degree, it still hurt that her own father had rejected her.
Tears began to fall down the child's face, and with a whispered "sorry" she shunpo'd off away from the pair. Ichigo turned around once she was gone, only to have his face meet a very solid object. "What the hell is wrong with you!?" Rukia screamed, roundhouse kicking him. Before he could recover, her tiny, ineffectual fists were beating repeatedly against his chest and shoulders. This was unlike before, when she had simply knocked him around in jest. She was seriously angry, and he knew that he would have bruises tomorrow.
"What's wrong with me?" He grabbed her fists and held them between their bodies, resisting the struggle she put up. "More like what's wrong with you? "That little punk was trying to weasel her way into soul society under the front of being your child. Why…"
"OUR child, Ichigo." She stopped struggling, and he let her fists drop. "The second that little girl fell out of the sky, I knew I had a connection to her. She has my chappy necklace," Rukia reached up unconsciously to finger the item around her own neck, "and she has the Kuchiki family…time……whatever brother said it was. Even I didn't know about that. Brother surely wouldn't have let her stay under the Kuchiki roof if he doubted her story…" Rukia couldn't explain the innate feeling that she had. This child was hers. With another wave of anger, she swung her fist at Ichigo's face. However, this time Ichigo was ready and caught the fist in one hand.
"What was that for, shortie?" he asked, the anger gone from his voice, having been replaced with contemplative thought.
"You made our daughter cry! Idiot!" She couldn't explain it, but she knew that defending the tiny girl was the right idea. The anger she felt was almost as intense as what she had felt at that Espada for taking Kaien's body. However, it would not last long. Fear overtook her. Anju was out in Soul Society on her own. She was just a child. What if she got lost? Or hurt? Rukia scratched the last thought out of her head. She trusted Anju's strength, and knew it would take an apocalypse to hurt the little girl. But Anju's tear-stained face appeared in her mind, and she feared for the girl's emotional state.
Seeing the fearful expression on Rukia's face, Ichigo lowered their hands. Before he could stop himself, he moved his free hand to join his other hand still holding Rukia's balled up fist. He blushed, and looked down at the simple gesture. Though he would never say it, he too feared for the child.
"Don't get that look, Rukia. If she is your kid, she'll be back. There's no way any kid of yours could lack stubbornness." Rukia looked up at this, and it was her turn to blush. However, the moment was broken when they both felt a stong riatsu shake the ground.
"Is that…" Rukia started to ask, but Ichigo finished her question.
"Kenpachi."
With a sigh, they released hands and went to see what on earth was going on. They arrived to find a crowd surrounding something. Pushing their way through, they found the center and couldn't help but smile at the sight before them. Kenpachi lay on the ground face up, his body held to the ground by Anju's heavy riatsu. Feet away sat Anju and Yachiru, giggling like the little girls they were. Rukia immediately ran to them, while Ichigo took a moment to check over Kenpachi.
"Hey there, Kenpachi. I see you've met that little demon's riatsu." He smiled, and Kenpachi glared. A few feet away, Anju sighed and rolled her eyes. The crowd erupted in laughter as Ichigo had now joined Kenpachi on the ground.
"Thank you for helping me, Yachiru. Ken-chan sure is a handful." The girls giggled again and Anju stood as Rukia reached them.
"I'm sorry for running off Rukia." Anju bowed and Rukia pulled her into a hug.
"It's alright. Ichigo was out of line. Thank you for taking care of her Yachiru." Rukia breathed with relief. She released her hold on Anju and turned to look at her idiot of a friend. "So what exactly happened?" She thought she knew, but felt the need to ask anyway.
"Oh, Ken-chan wanted to fight. I didn't want to, but he was very insistent. This was the only thing I could do without hurting him. Then I met Yachiru. She's just the same as always." Anju beamed with excitement that she had a friend her age. "Thanks again, Yachiru. I'll see you around."
"No problem. Maybe you can fight Ken-chan one day soon. I know he'd enjoy it. Bye Rukia-chan. See you later, JuJu!" Yachiru already had a nickname for Anju. Typical.
Anju let the two grumpy men up and took Rukia's hand as Yachiru went to jump on Kenpachi's back. "You ready to go home?" Rukia was relieved and wanted nothing more than to get home and eat lunch. She grabbed the approaching Ichigo's ear and drug him off to the Kuchiki home, ignoring his protests.
