Warning: This chapter contains blood, death and child birth, cannot read about these things, do not read this chapter, please. You have been warned.
The street was deserted before him. He could not see a single man, and lucky was that. He had no idea what could possibly happen within a few minutes, it depended entirely on how Kurosaki Ichigo would react when he appeared before him in a few minutes.
He missed the old Ichigo; he only did what he was told to do. Everything was so much simpler if you just listened to what the Boss said. Then you did not have to get into trouble, which Ichigo definitely was, given his betrayal of the Organization. He had just fled like that without completing his mission! As if that were not bad enough, he had brought with him Rukia as well, he knew that. Would it have been the other way around, Ichigo would have been dead already. Then his body would have been dumped somewhere where Rukia knew they would find him. She was a cold-blooded assassin who did not move for anyone.
Not even for himself, he knew. He had seen how Rukia had been transformed since the days they had so abruptly separated. She was no longer the nice girl he had lived with, but now she had really become the assassin that she had never wanted to be. One by one, the members of the Organization had been lost and then found dead in various places around the country.
It had always been the same murderer and the murderer had been Kuchiki Rukia.
How Ichigo had ever managed to survive was more than he could understand, if you looked at Rukia's nature. He must have some really good hold on Rukia to manage to keep her at bay this long without losing his life.
One more thing that he could not understand either was why Ichigo had brought Rukia to a safe place where they had been unable to trace either himself or Rukia. Had he already killed Rukia? But then why continue to hide? Had he taken her hostage? Did he ask her out and have some fun with her before he got rid of her? No, it was not Ichigo's style. He did not hurt anyone if he absolutely did not need to.
None of those options that he came up with seemed to be right. If Ichigo had now killed Rukia, why had he not come back? Was he afraid of the punishment which he knew was waiting on his return to the Organization?
That disturbed him something unbelievable. Why could he not find some good reason why Ichigo had stayed away for so long with Kuchiki Rukia, a woman whom he was entrusted to eliminate and ensure that she could not heal out information that should not come out? Had it been his own assigned task, he had finished it right away.
Bad luck for him the Boss had not wanted to give him the mission because of his and Rukia's "intimacy" in the past. The Boss did not trust that he could do the job, but that he would be "bloody" and back out since the target was his former girlfriend.
Instead, he now stood here, waiting for the person who had once been his best friend, but that he must now be regarded as his worst enemy, since he had violated the Organization's largest and most important rule:
Never leave or betray the Organization, as this will cost you your life.
A motion in front of him caused him to interrupt his thoughts on Ichigo and instead turn his attention to the person who was now headed in his direction. He immediately saw who it was, it could not be mistaken.
Orange hair, brown eyes… Without a doubt, Kurosaki Ichigo.
"You came", said Ichigo and smiled a smile as he saw radiated joy to finally meet his best friend again after a very long time.
He however did not smile. He must look at Ichigo as the enemy and throw away the side that had once been Ichigo's best friend. "Yes, I did. Why would I not do it?" He replied with a cold voice.
"What's wrong?" Ichigo wondered and was immediately on guard before he even had time to finish the sentence.
His smile disappeared, his muscles tightened and he put his hand on his pistol that he always had in a belt around the waist. It was a Beretta.
"Kurosaki Ichigo, hereby, I have to let you know that you are hereby under arrest and will serve your sentence by our leader, Genryuusai Yamamoto. The order was carried out by Abarai Renji."
Four of the Organization's soldiers came out of the shadows and surrounded Ichigo. In their hands they carried rifles that could fold down Ichigo with a single shot. Ichigo knew that there was no point in fighting back, so he let go of his gun, which he had not had a chance to pull, and laid his hands on his head. He nodded towards Renji and started walking towards the black van that was parked some distance away from the street they were on.
"I abandon myself without resistance, Abarai Renji. If this is what the Organization has decided, I'll be happy to follow orders without a fuss."
Renji beckoned to the soldiers to take Ichigo with him to the car and tie him. You could never be too careful, especially with Kurosaki Ichigo, their best assassin after the Boss himself.
To her horror Rukia saw that Ichigo was captured by her ex-boyfriend. Now she knew with certainty why Renji had left her:
He had gone mad by the power offered to him from the Organization that now had its best man caught because he had followed his heart.
When she heard Ichigo say "I abandon myself without resistance, Abarai Renji. If this is what the Organization has decided, I'll be happy to follow orders without a fuss.", she knew what was coming. Ichigo had told her that if she heard him speak these words, she would flee to a safe location where the Organization could not reach her.
"If you hear me say those words, it means that they will kill me. I have violated the foremost rule, Rukia, and the punishment for such treason is death. Do not try to save me, they will only take you as prisoner, and then torture you to death. Maybe they even will force me to look at it, yes, it is quite likely if they have not already killed me, and that is something I do not want to see, Rukia. Please, for me and especially for your own sake, flee the country and hide!"
Now that Rukia could hear Ichigo's words repeated themselves in her head she knew she could not leave Ichigo to his fate. She… loved him. Yes, she did. She could not live without Kurosaki Ichigo when he showed her the light of life. He had led her hope for a brighter future, consisting of happiness, light and a family...
"I will exempt you, Ichigo… I promise you..." Rukia stood up and followed the van with her eyes.
She knew where the Organization was thanks to Ichigo who had told her where their headquarters where, just in case there should arise a situation that would mean that she needed to get hold of the address. Now it was such a time. She would do everything in her power to stop Ichigo's execution. Even if she would die while trying to.
Better that I die now than run and hide like a cowardly rabbit. All my life I have been trained to kill people, so what is it that says I cannot save a person instead? Rukia thought to herself.
Quickly she put on a silencer on her M9 and began running the same route as the van had gone. Luckily for her, it took only five minutes to reach the warehouse that was used as a cover for the Organization's secret base below the premises.
In order to reach the very core Rukia must first open a narrow door that led into an empty room. The only thing that was there were some wooden boxes that seemed to be empty. Rukia quickly went up to one of the boxes and put her hands against it. She pressed lightly on the box, and a clicking sound was heard while the box was moving forward. A button below the box could be seen and she pressed it.
Behind her came the sound of metal on the move. When Rukia put back the box, she turned around and saw that a portion of the wall had moved and revealed a secret passage. Rukia quickly slipped through just as it closed behind her. Above her she could see a couple of stairs that led down to a big room. From below, she could hear voices conversing with each other. One of them was Renji's, but she did not recognize the other voice that spoke to Renji.
Probably "The Boss", which Ichigo calls him, thought Rukia and began to walk slowly down the stairs with the gun lift, ready to use it against any obstacles that could conceivably come in her way...
Ichigo found himself looking into the coldest eyes that were in the world. His boss, Genryuusai Yamamoto, was one of the coolest people he knew, and was it something Ichigo had learned during his years as an assassin, it was about cold people. There were none, and had probably never been any, mercy in Yamamoto's eyes. Ichigo knew he would be executed in front of Yamamoto's and Renji's eyes. Probably it would be Yamamoto himself who would press the trigger, which would end his life.
Ichigo was not afraid to die. He had had a good life, despite the career he had chose. He had just killed people who did heinous crimes and who needed to atone for them. He had a code of honor that he always and still followed:
Punish those who deserve to be punished, save the innocent if opportunity occurs.
Rukia had been one of those innocent ones, Ichigo knew it. His heart had always been right, and he followed his heart, even if it many times almost led to his death. He did not know how many times he had to sew himself up due to injuries caused by gunshots.
"Kurosaki Ichigo, you're standing here in front of me today. Do you know why?" Yamamoto's voice boomed into the room they were in. His eyes were directed towards Ichigo that did not budge an inch. He was not afraid of Yamamoto.
"Yes, I do. I failed the mission to eliminate Kuchiki Rukia. I took her with me to a safe place where you could not find either me or her. By doing this, I have violated our absolute law:'Never leave or betray the Organization, as this will cost you your life.'"
"Are you afraid to die, Kurosaki Ichigo?" Yamamoto said and would not look away from Ichigo for a second.
"No. I have lived a good life with friends", Ichigo turned to Renji when he said the word "friends" before he once again focused on Yamomoto. "And love. I love Kuchiki Rukia, and will so do after my death. She knows this and will settle down somewhere where you cannot find her."
"Yamamoto, excuse me for interrupting you, sir, but should we not have a squad that is looking for Kuchiki?" Renji asked and took a step towards his boss.
"I do not think it's necessary", said a voice behind Renji before he silently sank to the ground.
Above Yamomoto where Renji just had stood upright Kuchiki Rukia was standing with her M9 directed at him, ready to shoot if necessary.
"Rukia?" Ichigo stared at the woman behind his back. He had told her to go away, so why was she here?
"Ah, the famous Kuchiki Rukia has finally decided to show her face here with us in the Organization. What an honor." Yamomoto smiled an evil smile at Rukia without the slightest hint of fear.
"It will be an honor to take care of you personally, Kuchiki. When I'm done with you I'll take care of your lover. Nothing should be stopping me from becoming the most powerful Mafia boss in the world! You and Kurosaki know too much and must be eliminated."
"You have always been bad at lying, Yamamoto. That's only half the story, and you know it. Have you even told Ichigo why you want me dead? I thought so." Rukia smiled evilly. "This man took Renji from me and caused me to suffer in the most despicable way for several years before I decided I'd had enough. So, I started to track down members of the Organization and killed them in cold blood. Just the same way as Yamamoto got me to 'kill' Renji. This man wants me dead so that he can avoid losing more men, plus that he hates me. He want to see you dead Ichigo because he was afraid that I told you what I have planned all along. He thinks you and I have planned to kill him together, when in reality it's just me who has a reason for that."
Ichigo stared wide-eyed at the woman whom he believed himself to know. During all the time that he learned to know Rukia, she had kept this information to herself. Now Ichigo knew why the Organization, or rather Yamamoto, had wanted to eliminate Rukia. What Yamamoto had not counted on was that his best assassin and his target were to fall in love with each other.
"What a moving speech, Kuchiki. I get tears in my eyes", said Yamamoto and grinned derisively at the woman who stood before him.
"Let him go, Yamamoto, or I'll shoot", was Rukia's short answer. Her voice was as cold as her eyes staring into Yamamoto's.
Ichigo knew what would happen the moment Rukia's and Yamamoto's eyes met. He was therefore doing the only right thing:
The moment Yamamoto picked up his USP 45 which he had kept hidden inside his jacket, Ichigo jumped out in front of Rukia as a physical shield. A sharp pain was felt in his right shoulder when the bullet from Yamamoto's gun went straight through his flesh. Ichigo quickly turned his head and saw that Rukia had jumped away as soon as she saw the pistol glittering in Yamamoto's hands.
Without wasting any more time Ichigo grabbed a hold of Rukia's hand and shoved her finger as low on the trigger. A sharp blow came when the bullet went out of the gun and Ichigo felt how he and Rukia fell backwards by the force. While they fell Ichigo looked at his former boss and just as he thought the bullet struck Yamamoto's heart.
His former Boss was standing still with the gun raised in the air for a few seconds before he sank to the ground in a puddle of blood that gushed from the wound in his chest.
To be quite sure that it really was over, Ichigo picked up Rukia's gun that she had lost in the fall. With slow steps, and with his nerves on edge, he went up to the dead man and fired a bullet through his head.
Ichigo turned and looked at the shocked Rukia that lay on the ground a few feet from him. "Are you okay?" He wondered, but grimaced slightly in pain from his shoulder that made itself felt its presence.
"Ichigo, lie down! You're bleeding!" Rukia ran up to Ichigo and sat down in front of him while she leaned him against the wall carefully not to aggravate the wound in his shoulder. "Lean against the wall and try to relax. I'll take a look at the wound."
Rukia knew that a wound could look worse than it was, but she took no chances. First, she tore the sleeve of Ichigo's t-shirt that was grimy from his own blood. Blood ran down in streams along with Ichigo's shoulder and down on his arm. Luckily for Ichigo the bullet had not done any major damage inside, but had just gone through the shoulder and left a small hole where the blood ran out of.
Rukia quickly took up a small green first aid kit from her bag, which she had had over her shoulder and opened the box. Inside it lay bandages, scissors, a needle and thread. "Ichigo, I will now sew the wounds, both behind your back and front of the shoulder. It will hurt, but as long as I can stop the worst of the bleeding, you'll be okay until we can locate the nearest hospital."
"I trust you, Rukia." Ichigo smiled a faint smile and gave Rukia a kiss that was filled with his love for her.
"I've done this many times, and I understand you had endured many of these moments. I've seen it on your body." Rukia entered the thread in the needle and began to sew together Ichigo's shoulder.
A moan of pain escaped Ichigo and he shuddered when the cold steel from the needle penetrated his flesh. It straightened for every time Rukia tightened up a new skin piece and he had to make an effort to not scream in pain. It burned like fire in the wound, and Ichigo was afraid that he would faint.
After a while Ichigo could see in the corner of his eye how Rukia bit of what was left of the thread and inspected her work. She seemed pleased with what she saw, for she nodded approvingly. "Then it's just the back left..."
The same process occurred with his back, but now the pain was more enduring and Ichigo was able to breathe more regularly. He relaxed and let his thoughts wander freely while Rukia took care of his injured shoulder. His mind could not stop thinking about Rukia's revelation when she looked into Yamamoto's eyes and told him why she was who she was. Never had he been believed that it was because of the Organization that she had become the assassin she was today.
Soon, Ichigo could feel something soft and cool was wrapping around his shoulder in a circular motion. When he looked down he could see that Rukia had wound on his shoulder with a white bandage to hold back the blood that might seep through the stitches.
"There, now I have done what I can. How does it feel?"
"Good. Thank you, darling", said Ichigo and hugged Rukia tightly.
"Why did you follow me?" Tears streamed down Ichigo's cheeks as he continued to hold on to Rukia. "You could have died!"
Rukia stroked away Ichigo's tears and smiled. "Baka, how could I do that when I love you as much as I do?"
"I love you too, Kuchiki Rukia." Ichigo smiled through the tears. "It's just one thing I do not understand. How could you withhold such an important detail that it was because of Renji's decision to join the Organization that made you choose the assassins way?"
"I wanted revenge on the person who gave the order to take me and Renji prisoner and get me to kill him. It was not until today that I realized that Renji had been involved in planning everything. Had I known it from the beginning, I had never chosen the path I chose. I just wanted to avenge the death of my beloved one, as simple as that."
Ichigo shook his head with a sad smile on his lips. "Love can make us do strange things."
"Yes, but I'm glad Renji did what he did. If he had not joined your Organization we had never met, right?" Rukia continued to smile at Ichigo and was going to bend forward to give him a kiss, when her face changed to a grimace of pain. She putted her hand on her stomach and a groan of pain escaped her mouth.
Ichigo was about to ask what was wrong, when to his horror he saw that the floor between Rukia's legs became wet. Ichigo thought he knew what was about to happen, but the problem was simply that he did not know what his role would be in it all. Sure, he had long dreamed and longed to become a father, but there's one thing to dream about something and then see your dream turn into reality in front of you.
"Ichigo, you must… help me… I think… I will give birth..." It took Rukia an effort to get out the words between the waves of pain coursing through her stomach and down between her legs.
Ichigo took off his shirt and putted it under Rukia's head after he putted her right on the floor. Slowly he parted her legs and took off her pants and her panties. To his horror Ichigo could see that Rukia was already several inches open and how something tried to escape from her womb. "The baby is on its way, Rukia! Push for every time you feel a new ache!"
Rukia did as Ichigo told her to do, and cried out in pain as she felt the baby inside her was moving down every time she contrived. She was in a state of shock; she had not had the slightest clue that she was pregnant! Not the slightest sign that she had been able to tell her that a life was growing inside her for nearly nine months.
She really wanted to be a mother, it was true, but she had not thought it would be this way! She had always imagined that she would lie down in a hospital bed with a doctor and nurses who helped her get the child that was now so keen to see the light, out.
Now she was instead on a cold stone floor with a dead man who had been the Boss of a large Organization, another man who was unconscious and that had been her boyfriend in a previous life, and an injured man who was the father of the child which she now would bring to the world.
"I can see the head now, Rukia! Continue pushing!" Ichigo placed his hands around the baby's head when enough of it had come out so that it would not be damaged when it came out.
Rukia was sweaty from all the pushing, and her muscles around her legs and her gender, was completely exhausted. She was in a state that she never thought herself in. She was so weak and abandoned where she lay with open legs giving birth to a child that was hers. She had always been accustomed to having control, and she did not like to be weak, as she now was.
"Ah… God, I cannot stand it anymore!" Rukia screamed again in pain and pushed as hard as she could.
A child's cry could be heard in the room after a few seconds of silence when Rukia had a chance to relax. Her breathing was heavy and she had trouble finding the correct breathing. A smile played, however, on her lips as she listened to her newborn baby's first cry. Everything had gone well; the child lived and was now breathing its first breath.
"It's a girl, Rukia… She is so beautiful..." Rukia could hear Ichigo say between one of her daughter's screams.
Tears of joy ran down Ichigo's cheeks when he raised his daughter in his arms. She was so small and helpless, but oh so beautiful… He had never seen anything so wonderful as the young child he held in his hands. Becoming a father was the best thing that had ever happened to him. To be involved giving birth to your own child was something that all fathers should be a part of.
"May I see her...?" Rukia smiled more even though she was still sore in the lower part of her body after all the pain that had gone through it.
Soon there was a small bundle in her arms. It was her baby girl and Rukia could feel her heart swell with joy when she could take a look at her little girl.
Her skin was blue and she was covered in a mixture of blood and something sticky that had been inside the placenta where this little bundle had been clinging to the life without Rukia knowing it. Despite all this Rukia could not take her eyes off the baby in her arms. She was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen and Rukia knew she would love this little bundle as long as she lived.
Rukia gave her newborn daughter a gentle kiss on the cheek and then hugged her while Ichigo took out the scissors as Rukia had put back in the first aid kit. A small incision could be heard when the umbilical cord was cut.
Ichigo sat down next to Rukia and his newborn daughter. A smile played on his lips when he saw how his daughter was looking for her mother's breast to get her first meal. It did not take long, but Rukia had her daughter start suck up the milk she needed to take in order to survive.
"What shall we call her?" Ichigo asked as he continued looking at his daughter.
"How about… Yuki?" Rukia smiled up at Ichigo with twinkling eyes that shone with happiness at just having given birth to a healthy daughter. "She is a blessing and she is as innocent as the whitest snow."
"Sounds perfect."
Ichigo smiled and kissed Rukia while Yuki looked at them with a newborn baby's eyes...
