Transforming Love: Part 9

Thinking that it would not be such a good idea to arrive back at the Urahara residence running as if the very Hounds of Hell were after her, Orihime came to a halt and sat down against one of the trees so she could catch her breath.

She should have known that there would be search parties trying to find her, but after a week's time with no sign of pursuit, Orihime had begun to forget about all the dangers she had likely escaped from. Out of all the people she could have run into, it had to be Prince Ichigo. She had known him for less than ten hours before her kidnapping and while she had been initially attracted to him, after careful consideration for the past week she concluded that she knew too little about the prince to know if she could eliminate him, his family or friends from list of people who might have had reason to kidnap and harm her and her sisters.

In many ways, this past week had been one of the hardest she had ever had to endure in her entire twenty-one years. Being kidnapped and forced to watch as your sisters are turned into swans, running for your life, encountering the Urahara's and their friends, being interrogated by Mayuri and having to reveal everything that had happened to her and her sisters, discovering that Mayuri might be able to come up with a counter-elixir that would allow her sisters to return to human form for a short time and then going over and over in her mind who all she knew of who could possibly have a motive for doing all these things to her and her sisters. Kisuke and Yoruichi had also had long conversations with her about everyone she knew in an attempt to help her figure out who might have a motive for doing all of this. Orihime's naturally kind heart was forced to try and see potential evil in every face she had ever known, trusted or even met in her entire life and the strain was sometimes more than she could handle.

Feeling a weight settle in her lap, Orihime looked down to see one of her swan sisters sitting there. Looking into the swan's eyes, Orihime knew from the deep brown color of the eyes that Momo was trying to comfort her. Smiling down at Momo, Orihime gently began stroking the neck feathers trying to communicate that she was grateful for Momo's concern. A few moments later, Chizuru and Isane sat down on either side of Orihime as the young woman sat thinking.

After Mayuri had asked the questions, "Who exactly are those swans? And how were they transformed?", Orihime's first reaction was to ask a question of her own and so when she had recovered enough, she quickly wrote out the question, 'How do you know the swans are human?'

Mayuri had responded with, "I knew it! So they are humans who have been transfigured into swans! I thought human to animal transfiguration was just bunch of hooey, but it actually works!"

It had taken a few minutes before Kisuke had been able to force Mayuri to realize just how awful the situation truly was and reiterated Orihime's question, to which Mayuri had replied, "Their eyes, Kisuke, look at their eyes. This one has violet eyes while that one has emerald green ones. There is nothing you can say that will convince me that these swans are not human."

When Orihime looked for herself, she found that Mayuri was right. All the swans did have different colored eyes and her first recognizable emotion was relief that she could now know which swan was which sister. At that point, Orihime was so overwhelmed that she had almost cried in joy, but when Mayuri carelessly said that he could possibly find a way to counteract the transfiguration elixir, Orihime had actually broken down and sobbed so much that the two men had had to assist her up the stairs so that Yoruichi could help her to bed. After she had been comfortably settled with her sisters surrounding her, Kisuke and Mayuri had been thoroughly scolded for traumatizing their guest. The next morning, it had taken about fifteen minutes before Orihime had finally been able to convince Yoruichi that she had not been mistreated and had simply been overwhelmed and overtired from yesterday's events.

That had been about a week ago and Mayuri was still working on a 'cure', which he said would probably not be potent enough to last for very long at first, but something was better than nothing in Orihime's opinion. Mayuri had told her this morning that the first batch of elixir would be ready tomorrow and Orihime could hardly find enough things to keep her occupied until then.

Deciding that she had recovered enough to make a presentable entrance into the house, Orihime gently lifted Momo out of her lap, got up and made her way to the house with her sisters trailing behind her. Upon entering the house, Yoruichi and Ururu greeted her, informed her that the men were working in the laboratory, to which Orihime nodded in understanding before reaching for her paper and pen and writing that she was sorry, but she had been unable to catch any fish for dinner. Yoruichi nodded in turn, told Orihime not to worry about it and proceeded to make her way to the kitchen to inform Tessai about the change in dinner plans. Orihime followed and after Yoruichi was finished talking with Tessai and left, Orihime mouthed very distinctly 'What can I do' and so Tessai set Orihime to work making the biscuits for dinner and a couple of apple pies for dessert.

A while later, there was a loud knock at the door, which Orihime ignored at first until she heard Yoruichi answer the door and begin talking with someone whose voice she had only heard two times, but was nonetheless very familiar to her ears. She was never able to explain exactly what happened next, but before her brain could understand what was happening, her legs had managed to carry her from the kitchen to the front room where Yoruichi was talking to three young men dressed in commoners clothes, but whom Orihime knew were Prince Ichigo, Lord Shuhei and Sir Renji.

No one noticed her at first and as Orihime came into the room, she heard Yoruichi saying, "I can't say that I have ever seen a young woman of that description, but since I have so much to do here around the house, I don't see too many new faces. My husband goes out for supplies most of the time, so he might have some information."

Prince Ichigo looked resigned as he said, "And I assume your husband is out working. Thank you for your time."

Yoruichi crossed her arms and replied, "Hold on just a minute. If you really need to go then that's fine with me, but my husband happens to work in our basement. I don't think he's really busy at the moment, so if you'll wait a moment I'll go and fetch him."

Respectfully and gratefully, Ichigo inclined his head and said, "I would be most grateful if you would ask him to come up, madam."

Waving her hand dismissively, Yoruichi said, "No trouble at all, but don't call me 'madam' again. My name's just plain Yoruichi, so don't let me catch you calling me 'Ms. Yoruichi' or 'Mrs. Yoruichi', you hear?"

All three men nodded in understanding before Yoruichi smiled in satisfaction and went to fetch her husband.

At this point, Orihime had fully come to her senses and began to wrack her brain for some explanation for why she had come out here in the first place and to figure out some way of leaving without drawing attention to herself. Right now, it didn't seem as though anyone had noticed that she had come in, but that would all change the instant she moved to try and get away.

Looking at the three men, Orihime's eyes were drawn immediately by Prince Ichigo's strong bearing and confidant air. While the men were conversing quietly amongst themselves about something, Orihime once again studied the prince's countenance, only this time she was able to see the entire face rather than just his eyes, jaw and hair. From what she could tell, Prince Ichigo was handsome, with eyes that seemed to exude firm resolve, honesty, strength of character, intelligence and pride, which made Orihime strongly consider striking him from her list of possible suspects. However, she forced herself to remember that she knew very little about this man and that she could very well be overlooking possible character flaws because she was so struck by Prince Ichigo's handsome face and fine figure. Better to let Yoruichi and Kisuke talk to him and judge his character since they wouldn't be emotionally compromised like Orihime might be in this situation. Orihime knew too little about the prince to be in love with him, but she could not deny strong feelings of attraction to Prince Ichigo.

Her musings were suddenly interrupted when the sounds of frightened horses and frantic yells reached her ears from outside in the yard. Upon hearing the commotion, Prince Ichigo and his friends bolted out the door and Orihime followed after them instinctively.

It took her less than an instant to see Sir Keigo trying desperately to calm down four horses, who were bucking and yanking at their bridles which were fastened to a couple of poles, as well as Prince Ichigo and his friends coming to Sir Keigo's assistance. Orihime's attention was captivated in the next moment by the sight of two somethings, or in this case someones, white and feathered trying to get out from underneath the stomping hooves of the horses. Without thinking about the possible consequences, Orihime dashed over to dive under the surging bodies of the horses in order to use her own body as a shield for her sisters. Some sixth sense must have warned the horses that there was a human underneath them for about five seconds later the horses stopped rearing in fright and simply nickered slightly to show they were still a little skittish.

Once the horses were under control, Ichigo saw a figure wriggling out from underneath the horses and clutching two white objects. Immediately guessing what had likely happened, Ichigo's temper flared as he thought about how this person had risked their lives doing something very stupid for no apparent reason.

"What do you think you were doing? The horses could have trampl-Wait, you're the girl from the river! Why did you run…Wait, you're bleeding!"

As Ichigo had been talking, he had stalked over to the hunched over figure, roughly pulled her to her feet, realized that it was the same girl who had run away from him earlier and while he was trying to demand an explanation for her behavior Ichigo noticed the girl had a sizable cut on her forehead that was bleeding quite profusely. This last factor drove out all other matters except finding help for this girl and fast. The rest he would deal with later.

When Orihime had launched herself underneath the horses in order to protect her sisters, she had struck her head on the ground, or more accurately, a rock in the ground, which had resulted in the cut she had now. While the cut itself was not very large or very serious, since head wounds tend to bleed quite a lot she was beginning to feel slightly dizzy from all the blood loss. That did not prevent her from keeping her arms wrapped securely around her sisters as she allowed the prince and his companions to help her back inside the house.

Kisuke and Yoruichi were just emerging from inside the house when they saw Ichigo and Sir Renji all but carrying Orihime to the front door. As Urahara directed the men to settle Orihime in one of the chairs, Yoruichi gently pried the swans, who happened to be Yachiru and Chizuru, from her arms. It took about three minutes for the wound to be cleaned and bandaged and another minute before Tessai brought in a cup of tea to help bring Orihime out of her daze.

As Orihime was slowly sipping her tea, Ichigo saw that she was beginning to recover and so his earlier questions became important once again and so he said very abruptly, "I know you are the girl from the river earlier, so I want to know who you are and why you ran away from us. Also, what possessed you to run underneath those horses? Don't you know you could have been killed?"

When Orihime looked to Kisuke with a questioning look, Ichigo became irritated and said, "You don't need to look to him to supply your replies, just answer my questions girl!"

At Ichigo's outburst, Orihime gave him a surprised and somewhat angry look. In her agitation, Orihime forgot that she could not speak and so opened her mouth, but no sound escaped her lips. For a moment, Ichigo and Orihime just stared at one another before Orihime turned away her eyes in embarrassment with her face coloring and Ichigo looked to Kisuke for an explanation.

Before Ichigo could ask, Kisuke said, "This is my niece and her name is Zhinu. Unfortunately, she does not have the ability to speak, but if you will give me a moment to collect some paper and a pen, she will be able to answer your questions."

With that, Kisuke left and Ichigo turned back to the girl in front of him. Her face was turned and her hair covered part of her face, but it was quite apparent that she was still blushing slightly. After a moment, Ichigo also noticed a small wet spot forming on the front of her smock and Ichigo felt his heart pull a little when he realized that he had caused the tears to fall. In a very uncharacteristic gesture, Ichigo gently took one of the girl's small hands in his own and waited until she turned her face to look at him curiously.

Ichigo's close friends had been stunned when he took the girl's hand, but that was nothing compared to the actual shock of hearing the prince say, "I'm sorry. I spoke to you very harshly simply because you scared me back there, but that still doesn't excuse my behavior. Are you all right?"

Renji, Shuhei, Keigo and his other friends knew their friend well enough to know that he was a man of honor and integrity. If Ichigo felt that he had wronged someone, then he would apologize and try to set things right. Some of them had even been on the receiving end of his apologies, so it was not the fact that Ichigo was apologizing that had them so flabbergasted. It was the tone which he was using that confused them. While it could not be described as 'tender' or 'soft', it was sincere and concerned for someone whom Ichigo had only just met.

Before anyone could say anything else, Urahara returned with the writing materials, handed them to Orihime (or 'Zhinu') and she quickly wrote out the response, 'I'm fine. I ran earlier because you startled me and I thought you might be bandits or something.' It was partially the truth, since for a moment before she recognized the prince and his friends, she had thought that bandits or kidnappers had found her again.

Ichigo grinned as he said, "Well, you're not completely off the mark with that assumption where Keigo and Renji are concerned."

Renji growled, "And what exactly are you trying to imply?"

Keigo protested, "I'm not a bandit! How can you say such an unkind thing about me? She might actually believe you!"

It was Shuhei who managed to calm Keigo down as he said, "I think Ichigo was trying to insinuate that you are bandits whose main source of plunder are the hearts of fair maidens. Some of the most romantic figures in stories and tales are the roguish, suave, dashing and courageous highwaymen or bandits you know."

It took Keigo a moment to process this information before he puffed out his chest a little more and he said smoothly, "Oh is that right? Well, I guess it wouldn't be too bad then to be called a bandit."

Renji rolled his eyes, but smirked at Keigo's utter acceptance of Shuhei's explanation and made no further complaints on the subject. As for everyone else, they were hard pressed keeping their laughter contained so as not to spoil Keigo's simple-minded vanity and pride.

Turning his attention back to Orihime, Ichigo said, "Just one more question and then I'll leave you alone Miss Zhinu. Why were you so desperate to save those ducks? I mean, you really could have been killed or seriously injured because of them."

Orihime looked into Ichigo's eyes for a few moments before she wrote, 'They are swans and I saved them because they are precious to me. My family.'

When Ichigo read this, at first he was not sure how to respond when he grinned and said, "Well, I guess I can understand a little how you feel. I mean, I care for my horse and all and sometimes I wonder if he can actually understand me, but I wouldn't put him on the same level as my family or friends. Those swans must be priceless and very good companions for you to risk your life for them."

Standing up, Ichigo turned to face Kisuke and said, "I'm sorry that we are taking up so much of your time. We came here looking for someone or information about someone whom you might have seen recently. If you could give us any clues, we would be most grateful."

Kisuke nodded and so Ichigo continued, "We're actually looking for a family with eight sisters. You might have seen one of the sisters in town gathering supplies or the group of them travelling by here in the past week or so. The head of the family is a girl named Orihime and she is very beautiful with long caramel colored hair. She has seven sisters whose names are Rukia, Tatsuki, Nemu, Yachiru, Chizuru, Momo, and…ah I always forget her name…"

"Isane," supplied Shuhei.

"Yes, Isane. Has anyone unfamiliar passed by here recently?"

Kisuke crossed his arms and looked thoughtfully into space as he mumbled, "Eight unfamiliar women riding through the woods…possibly stopped in town…beautiful appearances…They all are beautiful, you said?"

Ichigo looked lost for a moment before he managed, "Um…yes, I believe so…"

"Hmmm…eight beautiful women passing by in the last week…all sisters…Wait, a minute. I think I might have…no, no that was the circus and they came a few months ago…very beautiful women, but too exotic looking for my taste and none of them could hold a candle to my dear wife (he added in a rather hasty tone)…also, I don't think they were sisters…goodness…the peddler and his family…no, he only has three daughters…"

Finally, Kisuke leveled his gaze on Ichigo and said, "Nope. I can't say anyone of that description has passed through here. If I may ask, why are you trying to find them?"

Ichigo answered smoothly, "Their grandmother is on the verge of death and the family requested assistance in tracking down the girls in order to bring them home. I wasn't given details as to why or where they were travelling, just that they needed to be found and brought home quickly before it is too late."

Kisuke nodded his head in understanding as he responded, "What a tragedy. If we hear or see anything that might be of use, we'll let you know if you leave us with some information of where you might be found."

Ichigo answered with another pre-arranged response saying, "Any information you might acquire can be sent to the innkeeper of The Green Dragon in Karakura Village. The innkeeper's name is Shunsui Kyoraku and he is a relative of the young women we are trying to locate."

Kisuke nodded and stuck out his hand, "I will certainly remember. And now that you know where I live, feel free to visit at any time you are in the area."

Accepting the proffered hand, Ichigo grinned and said, "It would be my pleasure. Thank you for your time."

Nodding to his companions, the four men made their way outside and mounted their horses. Along with everyone else, Orihime followed the group to the yard and stood there waiting to bid them farewell.

As Ichigo and the others adjusted themselves atop the horses, Kisuke asked, "I'm curious. Exactly how did the horses become so spooked earlier?"

Everyone looked to Keigo as he was the only human present who had the ability to answer and he said quickly, "It wasn't my fault. The horses and I were out here minding our own business when out of nowhere, these two white things start running around the horses for no reason. Before I can react, the horses spook and start rearing and that's when you guys came out to help me."

Orihime sighed inwardly as she guessed that because the two swans happened to be Chizuru and Yachiru that they had been chasing one another or trying to play some sort of game with the horses. Obviously, their antics had blown up in their faces and Orihime could only hope that the two 'silly gooses' as their late father sometimes called them had learned their lesson not to act so carelessly around creatures larger than themselves.

Ichigo's response was, "At the next stop, Shuhei, you watch the horses."

With that, the four men said farewell and rode away as Keigo protested against all the unjust things his friends said and did to him.

Leaning in close to her husband's ear, Yoruichi whispered, "I certainly hope Prince Ichigo takes you up on your offer to visit us again."

Giving her a knowing smile, but asking the question anyways, Kisuke responded, "And why is that?"

"If the prince were really part of the whole kidnapping scheme, then he wouldn't have freaked out as much as he did when he saw Orihime bleeding."

"I agree. This should prove a very interesting love affair with the man engaged to another woman, or so he thinks, while if he visits here often he could be falling in love with a commoner, not knowing that the two women are actually the same. On her end, she knows exactly who he is even though he will come here pretending to be someone else, but she is not sure she can trust him. After this is all over, I might just have to create a play out of all the drama that has ensued."

Yoruichi gave an exasperated sigh as she also anticipated the drama that would unfold in the next few weeks with mixed emotions.

Author's Note:

It seems like my average time between posting chapters for this story is ten days...not very good and I apologize for how long it takes. I know I keep saying this, but I am REALLY hoping this time to cut that time in half and finish up this story. This is definitely not going to be as long as The Common Thread, so I am hoping to have this story finished in about ten more chapters. We'll see how everything comes together.

If Ichigo acted slightly out of character in here, I do partially apologize since I was really struggling with this whole scene after the horse trampling accident trying to make everything work, but again in a sense just like in The Common Thread, this version of Ichigo is probably not going to be exactly like Kubo's. He was raised with better manners and higher expectations and more exposure to dealing with lots of people, especially females, so he won't be quite as blunt as he normally is.

Also, the love between Ichigo and Orihime/'Zhinu' is going to develop fairly quickly than I normally have worked with (Irodonio aside), but I feel that it is a lot more slow and normal than a lot of fairy tales where it seems the couple meet, fall in love at first sight and are married in the next paragraph a lot of the time.

If you are curious about my having Kisuke introducing Orihime as 'Zhinu', just like with the hair, it seems to me that it wouldn't take long for Ichigo to be able to piece everything together really quickly and I want Ichigo to actually fall in love with Orihime for who she is and not just because she is his fiancee. I could be wrong, but from what I have found 'Zhinu' is the Chinese equivalent of 'Orihime', so I thought it was fairly appropriate.

As always, if you have questions, critiques or comments feel free to let me know what you are thinking so far! Enjoy!