This is becoming humor-filled…not. Damn it, it is so hard to get inside Rukia's head….aaurg! To make up…this is gonna be the longest chapter I ever made.
Anyways, don't look at me like that. I know I've got a lot of explaining to do for not updating for like many, many days…I've been so busy with contests, exams, and finally our periodical test is now finished so this week is already Sembreak!
Bu after that, school again…nay….
And damn TK (sorry! Take it back after like Rukia is fine again in the manga, I miss her sorely that I have read the whole manga like many times already! From start to latest chapter…Gawd, I miss her and Ichigo. Though Nel –yes, its one 'l'- lifts the mood a little) Where's Rukia?!
Disclaimer: Tite Kubo owns the entire bleach universe. I'm just using his characters for my own enjoyment and, hopefully, your enjoyment too.
X. Times Change Without Our Acquiescence
"You're not joking, aren't you Kurosaki?"
He pushed his glasses up, the light glinting off it sharply. Ichigo was trying hard to ignore the urge to pound it into Ishida.
"Well, yeah, I'm a doctor." He said for the umpteenth time, and added as an afterthought. "So what?"
Uryuu turned around suddenly, finding the thought that he was also a doctor quite not so relishing, only to face the other man's wife. His wife?
"Morning, Orihime."
"Good morning, Ishida-kun!"
For a moment, he had to remind himself that he was awake.
Ishida stood up from where he sat on the bed, naked as the day he was born. His current bed companion boldly watched him as he went to stand by the window, leaning on the sill with his hands.
She grabbed the glass by the bedside table and emptied it, hugging the blanket to her breasts.
"Ishida, is something bothering you?"
He grunted.
"I heard that Orihime and Ichigo are back, have you seen them?"
"Hn."
"Well?"
"Well, what?"
"Are you going to do something about it?"
"You want to do something? Sure, invite yourself."
She fell silent, feeling stupid for even bothering to start a conversation with the enigmatic young doctor.
Ishida watched as the clouds slowly veiled the night sky, the stars twinkling back at him. He had spent many sleepless nights like this. How many nights had it been since he had last slain a hollow?
A sparkle caught his eye. It was from the real quincy cross his father had finally given him after…after…
He can't even remember when it was given to him. If it was really given to him. He knew he was supposed to remember it. How could he forget something like that? He had been thinking of the answer to why there were such huge gaps in his memory, especially in the year he turned sixteen, for a long time now. It was weird. He could remember almost nothing in that timeline.
He saw the moon. A round black thing in the sky, and the few stars visible were obscured by the clouds.
He watched the swirling liquid in his glass, the ice cubes clinking against the sides of the glass, remembering the sweet, bright smile Orihime had given him that morning. How sad that she married Ichigo.
Yeah, how sad.
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Hirako is following Ichigo and Orihime. It shouldn't have surprised Rukia that they got married, no, it shouldn't, she have half-expected it. She had even made it very implicit to Ichigo before she went away.
And, anyways, there are a lot of things she should be bothered about. Why was Hirako following them? Is it because, because Ichigo's power had yet to return?
She shook her head, hoping to forget that small glimmer of hope rising in her heart. There was no use for hoping anyway. Whatever was in the past will always remain there. She had no time thinking if she should----
The door opened. It was funny that when she was about to see Yuri, she remembered the last time she saw him….
The incessant knocking on the door has now stopped, and even though she knows that she can't stop them with only her abilities, she will try. They were not going to take him away from her too.
She faced the door, Sode No Shirayuki poised for battle, though her hands held the zanpakutou so tight that the knuckles were now turning white. The ones wanting to enter were probably suppressing their reaitsu, she couldn't know how many or who was outside.
"Rukia?! Open this door, Goddammit."
Her heart stopped in her throat.
"R-renji?" Her voice was actually shaking! "Renji?" she asked again, this time in a much louder tone.
"Dammit, Rukia, why are you barricading this damned door? You should fucking well know tha----"
"Don't speak that way to a Kuchiki."
Relief weakened her knees.
"Rukia, I'll open the door."
She held her breath. Maybe it was a false alarm; maybe it had been useless to barricade the damned door. But she knew better, or else, why had Renji and her brother come here?
"They're coming." Byakuya announced as soon as he had both of his feet in the room.
She stared at Byakuya's hard, unyielding face. At that time an old woman showed herself and in her arms was a sleeping child of four. His flaming head of orange resting on one shoulder.
"What happened, Miss Kuchi—" the rest of the old woman's words remained unsaid. Her eyes strayed from Byakuya to Rukia fearfully.
Rukia took deep, shaky breaths, she was aware that her face had become unnaturally pale. She went to the old woman and took the child in her arms. The old woman, stood wringing her hands, not knowing what to do in the face of her superiors.
"Renji," she barely heard Byakuya as she hugged Yuri closer to her," take Kyo somewhere safe."
Renji went and took Kyo's hands, eyes darting to the kid Rukia held protectively.
"How about Yuri?"
"We can't let Kyo bring him. They would just follow the kid's reaitsu and he would be unprotected. Make it fast."
Renji nodded his assent.
Every one of her senses sharpened, they were coming and they were not even bothering to hide their reaitsu.
She was still staring at the doorknob so hard that she was surprised it had not yet melted at the pressure.
The door opened.
No, that was wrong. The door was destroyed by them. By the same people who should have fetched her from the Living World and had been the ones to send her almost to her death at the soukyokou.
The onmitsukidou had come, and she narrowed her eyes as Yamamoto sou-taichou revealed himself, his reaitsu almost engulfing everyone's, even Yuri had whimpered.
The sou-taichou was heading the group instead of Soi Fon, could it be possible that she doesn't know?
"Seems like the sixth division's captain is here to protect his sister. Good thing that I have traveled in the same pace as them. And I wouldn't even be surprised if your vice captain was here."
She saw his eyes open barely and give Yuri an appraising look. Instinctively, she held him tighter, and even Byakuya's hand tightened over his zanpakutou.
"That kid takes over his father, does he not?"
"That kid has a name. Use it, old man." Byakuya's voice was harsher and colder. She could taste the tension present in the room. Everybody was expecting to fight. Yamamoto's voice dropped a notch and his eyes opened beneath his heavy brows, showing the ruthlessness and the determination he had gained for all the years he was sou-taichou.
"Kuchiki ,it would be hard to look for someone to replace you but nevertheless, it could be done. You do know what's going to happen?"
"Yes, I know fully well."
Byakuya's reaitsu went higher and so did everyone else's. Just then, there was a commotion outside, Renji has arrived, and even his spiritual energy had increased.
She saw every small fleck of violet in the kid's brown eyes. She stood rooted to the floor, and she didn't even notice the moisture gathering in her eyes cause she was excited, unsure and yet, overwhelmed by the fact that after so many years…how he has changed.
The last time she saw him, his eyes weren't that brown yet, the violet flecks in them were still very noticeable. His cheeks were very rounded, and he looked so chubby then. Even his orange hair wasn't that orange, and as spiky, nor as thick as it was now.
Yuri was looking at her so intently. Could he have forgotten her? He was, after all, grasping Haruko's hand tightly. He was nine years old now, soon to be ten. It looked as if he had grown more than she thought he would. His cheeks were becoming splotchy red.
"Yuri?" she called out to him and even stretched out her arms.
Haruko's hand fell limply to her side, and no one noticed the way she turned her head, nor the pained way she closed her eyes, as Yuri ran the short distance into Rukia's arms and his own went around her neck to hug his mother fiercely.
Rukia felt Yuri's arms go around her neck and felt something wet on her shoulder. He was crying. It was then that she knew at to what extent she missed him. Rukia tightened her arms around him and shut her eyes so hard. Yes, she was happy, truly happy. Nothing else could make her happier….
"Momma, you came for me! They told me you would! They did! Don't ever leave me again!"
His cries were muffled against her shoulder, yet she could not stop the tears from falling.
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Haruko hugged herself tightly, shivering slightly in the cold. She had intentionally gone for a long walk just a minute after six o'clock that evening and was now coming back for diner, and she had forgotten to wear warmer clothes, too.
She let out a string of curses, leaning on the hard trunk of a tree several yards away from her house. Her house where Yuri and Rukia was now having a mother-and-son bonding time to make up for all those lost years.
What the hell am I thinking? Am I begrudging Rukia for showing up after five years? I knew this would happen, Yoruichi told me, didn't she? To quote her "…don't get to attached to the boy...". And yet, as the years went by, she had slowly come to think of Yuri as her own. Which was silly, of course.(1)
She sighed.
Then she remembered the incident at the beach a few days back, when she had brought Yuri along with her. And she felt as if the night's temperature had gone a notch lower. She glanced back at the house.
Dinner. She had to prepare it, she would, of course, cook Yuri's favorite dish (she'd have to tell Rukia all about his likes, dislikes and allergies, she reminded herself). With that, she walked up to her front porch, still hugging herself.
She was reaching for the doorknob when the sound a car stopping in front of her lawn stopped her. Feeling relieved (for a reason she dare not mention), she turned. It was what she heard people call it, a luxury car, pretty expensive, and it looked as if it was chauffeur-driven.
The owner approached her. Byakuya was wearing casual clothes, a dark green turtle-neck sweater and jeans. But he still looked formidable because of the expression on his face.
"Good evening."
"Same to you Byakuya Kuchiki."
The man looked as if she had ruffled some of his feathers with that statement. Well, then, he could not have expected her to be so courteous to him, haven't he?
"I believe my sister and nephew are inside."
This man is an expert in subtleties. He could have merely said plainly, 'invite me in'.
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Renji was prowling the small room in Kisuke's house. He was feeling nervous, for what reason, he doesn't know and he doesn't care.
"Hey, pineapple! Stop pacing, you're scaring the costumers!"
Jinta called out to him. Damn that kid, calling him a pineapple. What cheek.
He stopped pacing and went out of the room.
"Shut up, you creep! It's a little past seven, there could be no more costumers! You think I'm stupid?"
He challenged the kid. (Jinta had grown and looked his age at twenty-one, but since he was still taller than him, he calls Jinta 'kid'), and looked down at him.
"You said that, not me."
He glared.
"Now, now, kids," Kisuke interrupted, "Just calm down, we wouldn't want to disturb the town with one your fights, would we now?" and to Renji, "Sit, Renji, your captain told me to tell you something."
Renji's annoyance disappeared in a hush, replaced with disbelief.
"Kuchiki taichou?"
Kisuke feigned surprise. "Oh, I wasn't aware you've changed captains."
Renji grumbled and Kisuke fanned himself while giving himself a small smile.
"Well, Renji," he dangled a set of keys, "your taichou told me that you better have opened the house, or in our terms, the mansion, before, let's say, eight this evening."
"Hell, that's more or less, thirty minutes from now."
"Yes, I know. Would you like to have it?"
"Of cour---! Didn't taichou tell you to just give it to me?"
Kisuke sighed. "You're no fun Abarai-san."
Renji stubbornly opened his palms and he dropped the keys in them.
"Where is it?"
He told him the directions to the place.
"Double damned shit, that's far!"
Kisuke gave himself a big, congratulatory smile.
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"Oi, Ichigo, where's my grandchild?" Isshin asked him in the middle of dinner which had him glaring at his father, and Orihime almost spilling her drink.(2)
"You perverted old man. You don't talk like that in front of the meal." Karin retorted.
"Thanks, Karin." He was still glaring at his father.
Isshin, being his usual self, didn't give up and kept on pestering him until Karin couldn't take any more of it and actually pulled at her father's beard, shouting in his ear, "Shut up, old jerk, Ichi-nii and nee-san has no child yet! Get it? GET IT?!"
Ichigo sighed at their exchange, after all, he was used to it, and he has even begun to think back where he was staying now, how he missed those old times. But now, he has changed his mind. He would never ever think about missing his father's silly antics. Come to think of it, his father seemed not to have grown older. He looked as he always did.
He glanced at Orihime and gave her a little smile. He knows she still wasn't used to Karin and their dad bickering, with Yuzu acting as referee. And Orihime gave him a smile back.
Later, that night, as they were going to bed, Ichigo remarked about it.
"They're always like that, you know, I'm sure you have noticed."
"What about, Ichigo?"
"Dad and Karin fighting."
"Oh, that? Its okay. I'm used to it. I've been part of this family for like six years already, so I'm used to it."
"Good."
"But, sometimes, I'm worried if they'll harm each other. We both know Karin's a member of Karakura's soccer team, she could pack quite a kick, and you're father is old. Isn't he?"
"That man. Eh, don't worry about him. He's as strong as a silverback gorilla."(3)
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That's all for this chapter, it's up to you what happened next.
(1)is she becoming another Orihime?
(2)seems like Isshin knows, does he?
(3)I don't wanna finish this…
So, the next chapter I'm planning to start from where this story is supposed to pick up. Before Yuri, so yeah, it's a sort of flashback…and it could answer a lot of your answers!!!! So start giving me those reviews!! And it has to be a lot…like more than 10? And exceeds ten!!!!
forgive the worng spellings and everything it was just because i was so excited to update!!!
Please!!! I like to know if I lost touch with this! (the flashback is the reason why this is such a long chapter, but the flashback chapter/s would only happen if you give me many, many reviews!)
And as you have read above…I still haven't decided whether its ichiori or ichiruki…so please!
Reviews! Thanks…a whole lot…