© Copyright 2011

Written work by MsMifuyu

Chinatsu looked down at Rukia. Not too long ago, her eyes had fluttered slowly open. Her pale face looked at Chinatsu, smiling at her with her white lips.

"Where are we?" she asked, trying to look around without moving.

"We're in Urahara shop," Chinatsu filled her in on all the details that were happening. To what extent her injuries were. Where Ichigo was at that moment. Rukia's eyes widened. She tried to sit herself up, but winced as the pain across her stomach made her lie back down.

"You're injured," she had to remind Rukia as she rolled her eyes, "Even a human would know better than you."

Rukia just looked at her feebly.

"Is he alright?"

"Of course he's alright. It's Ichigo we're talking about here,"

"Has he come across onii-sama yet?"

"No not yet. Though I'd say Ichigo's gonna be in for it, considering Byakuya pretty much loathes him," Chinatsu caught herself before she started laughing. That would've been a stupid move. Rukia turned her head sideways. There was nothing but potted plants and paper screen doors to look at in this room.

"So it's poison huh?" she asked reluctantly, maintaining her eye contact with the door, like Ichigo would walk through it with Unohana any second.

"Mm," Chinatsu said, confidently saying, "but don't worry, Ichigo's got your back. You ain't dying on us any time soon."

Rukia laughed a little, her voice still weak.

"I've never had a poison in me that's made me feel this crap before," she muttered, rubbing her chin in a lying down position as she talked.

"Either way, Tessai has been performing a lot of that glowing stuff,"

"Kido?"

"Yeah what ever. And Ururu's been cooking some gross smelling soup for you. Lucky you weren't awake for that part,"

Rukia chuckled.

"I can taste it in my mouth…" she swished her tongue around a bit, "it's not that bad actually."

Chinatsu scoffed. Muttering 'baka' under her breath. Rukia laughed.

"Thanks," Chinatsu whispered.

"For what?"

For being such an awesome friend she wanted to say, for protecting me when you really didn't need to, for risking your life for me, for dealing with the pain of the poison.

But it was too embarrassing to say, so she looked away as she said,

"Just thanks."

Rukia raised an eyebrow at her.

"So where's Ichigo now?" she asked.

"I don't know. I haven't been in the 'cinema' for a couple of hours now." Chinatsu rolled her eyes.

"Oh…"

"But you missed the epic battle of this 'Zaraki Kenpachi' taichou and Ichigo," Chinatsu laughed, making shapes with her hands and arms as she explained.

"They've fought before," Rukia reminded her, "but Ichigo wasn't as strong back then."

Chinatsu, upon recalling the memory, chuckled. Her eyes shone as she looked at Rukia.

"Your boyfriend is such a wimp," she poked her tongue out at Rukia's wide eyes.

"What?"

"He was like…" and her story began.

Ichigo stood, his sword still hooked magically onto his back whilst he held his hands up.

"I don't have time for this!" he yelled at the man.

"I was just saying hi to my old buddy, Ichigo." The man said.

"Maybe next time Kenpachi," he tried running past Kenpachi, but his jagged toothed zanpakuto blocked his way.

"Oi, that's really disrespectful you know," Kenpachi said, his eyes narrowing on Ichigo.

"I need to get Unohana. It's an emergency. Okay? I'll play with you next time."

"Ehh? Icchi's got an emergency? What emergency?" a cute little voice said from behind Kenpachi's back.

A little pink haired girl popped up on Kenpachi's shoulder, her dark pink eyes looked at him expectantly. Ichigo sighed, rolling his eyes.

"I'll tell you when it's not an emergency anymore Yachiru," Ichigo again, tried running past Kenpachi. Again, he was stopped by the teeth of Kenpachi's sword.

His menacing eyes looked at him. Ichigo sighed again. He looked into the distance briefly before pointing out randomly,

"Hey look, is that a menos grande?" his eyes widened as he blatantly lied to distract the two.

Kenpachi turned around eagerly whilst Yachiru was forced the other way, still clinging onto his back. When they turned around, Ichigo was gone.

Rukia laughed as heartily as her weakened form allowed.

"He really did that?" she asked through her snorting.

"What a loser right?" Chinatsu laughed along with her, looking around distracted. Rukia noted it straight away.

"What's going on?"

"Oh. Nothing special," Chinatsu's eyes looked down momentarily as she said this.

"Can I go watch?" Rukia asked nonchalantly, though she somehow sensed there was something up.

"Can you even move with those injuries?" Chinatsu asked back frantically, trying her best to keep Rukia in the room, "Tessai-san said you needed rest."

"Sure thing. I just woke up from who knows how long," Rukia angled her head slightly, thinking, before asking, "how long have I been unconscious?"

"Not long…"

"How long?" Rukia was starting to get annoyed by Chinatsu's cryptic behavior.

Chinatsu sat silent. She looked away, as if weighing it out. Would Rukia get mad? Would she be confused? Should she listen to Tessai and Urahara? Did her worries about Rukia's health beat her loyalty to her?

"You've been out… a year," Chinatsu's eyes widened for a couple of seconds. She processed Rukia's face, watching her eyes widen at such a length of time.

"W-Wha-" Rukia was about to begin, but Chinatsu cut her off with her insane laughing.

"Nah just kidding. It's been like, three days."

Rukia gave her a glare. Clearly annoyed that her friend had made a joke in such an important moment. Chinatsu caught the gist of what her friend wanted to yell at her for and quickly added,

"See it's not as bad when you have something larger to compare it to right?"

"…"

Rukia attempted to sit up, but Chinatsu's hands now guided her down. Her eyes looked straight into her best friend's eyes.

"Stay."

"But I want to see-"

"I know you want to see Ichigo, but you've seen him every day of your life since you guys got together. Don't you think it's about time you just gave it a rest? He's on his way back with Unohana-san."

Well. That wasn't completely a lie. It just wasn't the whole truth.

"…"

Her eyes looked like they were about to brim with tears. Chinatsu looked at the door uncertainly, before looking back at Rukia even more uncertainly. Rukia had lay back down, staring blankly at the ceiling, not wanting to hear anymore about what was happening. Chinatsu put the responsibility of entertaining her on her shoulders.

"You know Rukia," she began, "that guy I told you about?"

Rukia looked at her, vaguely remembering their conversation from the other day before nodding.

"Just so you know, it's not Urahara."

She chuckled, still not willing to say anything. In essence, she was sulking.

"The hat, the clothes, even the ugly old straw shoes are the same," Chinatsu made a face, "but it's not him. Is that even possible? Does Urahara have a brother or something?"

Rukia shook her head.

"Not that I know of," she whispered. Chinatsu beamed. She had successfully made her friend talk.

"But how would such a handsome boy adapt such an ugly style? Surely it had to be passed on…"

"Maybe he stole it off Urahara's line. He has a line, right?" Rukia made her input into the conversation.

"But if he managed to sneak past Tessai-san, he might as well have snuck into an expensive store and stolen some nice clothes."

"True…"

They both nodded in agreement before cracking up imagining a mini-Urahara stealing his clothes. Rukia was the first to stop. She looked at Chinatsu.

"Can't you just tell me what's happening? You know I'd do the same for you if you were in my position."

Chinatsu stopped abruptly, having been caught. She sighed.

"I would tell you. It's not that you can't know what's happening. You just won't wanna know."

"What do you mean?"

"Remember that time when I showed you something you couldn't un-see?"

Rukia nodded frantically at the memory.

"This is exactly the type of thing you can't un-hear. As in, when you hear it, you will worry until it happens."

Rukia hesitated. If it were that bad that she wouldn't want to know… But Chinatsu could visibly see the curiosity in her eyes. The need to know what was going on. Although she hesitated, wincing at the pain of moving an inch, she knew what she wanted.

Sighing an exasperated sigh, Chinatsu sat cross-legged on the mats where Rukia lay.

"You know how I said Ichigo was coming back with Unohana?" she asked.

Rukia nodded.

Ichigo had just escaped the two, running at what felt like the speed of light. Over the years he'd come to Seireitei now and then, but it was all for different purposes. The first, to break Rukia out and save her from execution. Others usually involved the same process of fighting his way through the place, demolishing walls that were in his way whilst he followed certain people's reiatsu.

Unohana wasn't one he knew, so he wondered around Seireitei aimlessly. Every now and then he'd turn a corner and find a large door with a '3' or '5' and think he was getting closer, but he'd search in the same general area and find nothing.

Ichigo yelled.

"Does anyone know where this stupid fourth building is?"

"And why would you want to go to the fourth division?" a nonchalant voice came from behind him. Though behind the pretense of nonchalance, he could hear a demand.

Turning around, he saw who he'd expected,

"Ahh. It's you."

"…" Byakuya twitched slightly in annoyance.

"What do you want?" Ichigo asked, still looking around to see if he could spot the building.

"I asked before Ichigo," Byakuya's calm, but firm tone said. His dull eyes looking menacingly at him, "what is the necessity of you going to the fourth division building?"

"I needa get Unohana taichou to help ru-" Ichigo quickly shut his mouth. Byakuya's eyes widened.

"Rukia?"

"No…" he looked around frantically, "I meant Luna! A friend at school,"

Byakuya gave him a skeptical stare. He left without a word, disappearing into thin air. Of course, by Ichigo's eyes, he could probably see the mechanics of shunpo.

Chinatsu watched from the screen, using the little toggle stick to move the angle of the camera around to get a better look of Ichigo's face.

"You idiot," she muttered under her breath.

He ran through the building as fast as he could. As soon as Ichigo had seen even a glimpse of the number '4' with a bellflower, he ran straight for that direction, which brought him to the fourth division building.

"How big is this place?" he muttered, running in.

"Oi Ichigo!" One of the members yelled after him, "you can't be here!"

"I'll only be a sec," he yelled back. What was that guy's name again?

Past corridors and the outside garden, he zigzagged through. Zangetsu tailing behind him in his hand.

"Where is the captain of this joint?" he yelled around the empty-looking corridors. Finally, when he'd circled the whole place with no luck, he trudged out. Where were the captains when you needed them? Shaking his head, he stepped into what looked like a hall with beds.

Unohana taichou stood beside an injured shinigami. Her hands hovered over the place where the heart would be with a green light glowing on top of it. He drew nearer to her, rewrapping his sword whilst he was at it.

"I need your help,"

Ichigo went on to explain everything that happened. Everything he knew that happened anyway. And no sooner had he finished then Unohana taichou opening the senkaimon, allowing a hell butterfly to guide them to where they stood.

"So they're here now." Rukia said, eyes wide.

"They are…" Chinatsu continued.

"Why didn't he bring Unohana taichou here?" she sounded hurt. That she was in pain and he wasn't here. Chinatsu patted her shoulder.

"Nobody could've known that Byakuya had followed Ichigo to the fourth division building."

"What?"

"Actually I could… Urahara had to pull me off the screen because I might've crushed it to pieces trying to tell Ichigo he was there…"

Rukia gasped, ignoring the excess information.

"Onii-sama…followed him?" she made a face.

"Mm…" Chinatsu nodded, "There wasn't much of a fight, but he did hear your condition through baka Ichigo."

She continued staring at Chinatsu, expecting her to continue. Chinatsu cleared her throat a bit, trying to prolong the moment that bit longer.

"I tried following Byakuya with the reiatsu thing but Urahara didn't have a sample of his… so it was useless. We had to keep following baka Ichigo until he got back here. I think he went back to his quarters first or something…"

"…" Rukia folded her arms, waiting for Chinatsu to hurry up and tell her what was actually going on.

Chinatsu stared at Rukia. She would not be happy to hear this if she told her. It was hopeless. She looked up at the roof as she heard a door slide open. Not the senkaimon no. A sliding door sliding open then shut as quickly as only reiatsu could do it. A cold shiver went down her spine.

No her mind screamed. Not yet

A sweat drop went down the side of her cheek as she looked back at Rukia, whose face was questioning. For her original information she was supposed to have leaked by now, and for her reaction at such a simple thing like a door opening.

"I'm sorry. There's no point telling you now. Just sit and be patient. It shouldn't take too long."

"Chinatsu!" Rukia whined.

The door slammed open. The first thing that came into view was a frown. The top of his black hair was pinned back with elegant silver hair pieces and he wore white clothing that the captains all wore. His zanpakuto was at his side, secured by his waist. Almost threatening. Ichigo's voice in the background yelled,

"Oi, she's sleeping!"

His eyes hovered over to where Chinatsu sat by.

"Rukia."