My dear reader... as i promised, the story goes on.

I see that the last chapter made you sad. I hope this new part will put in a better mood. No more grieving... This is a story about Byakuya's human adolescence and about how Rukia learns to feel and act as a young girl again.

Enjoy!


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Part 2

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Prologue

10 years after i let you go…

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43 years ago I stepped into the human world and fell in love with a teenager who except from the orange hair he looked exactly like my ex-lieutenant. 9 years later I was becoming the mother of his child. But that was long ago… so long that if my son wouldn't have inherited the eyes and the behavior of that teenager, I would have forgotten all about him by now…

Sometimes I tell this to myself only to detain myself from remembering those times.

Once I was a married woman. That also happened a longtime ago. So long, that I forgot the feeling of sharing the bed with someone or the one of wearing a wedding ring.

Sometimes I tell this to myself only to detain myself from remembering those feelings.

In reality I didn't forget a thing. I just learned to live with the loss. I don't know if this made me stronger or it just turned me into a cold, colorless person. Sometimes I find myself thinking of the girl I used to be and the woman I turned up to be in the end… I also think a lot about the wasted time I wasn't aware of .

34 years has passed since Ichigo and I spit up so I could marry Byakuya. 17 years passed since my husband died. 10 years since stopped chasing his reincarnation and I haven't went to the real world …

Today, I must admit that the last 10 years, have been the ones I wasted the most… I try to pick up memories from them and I end up with nothing important. It's strange… my life was always about something extraordinary that was about to happen. Not anymore…

After I came back from the real world I decide to cut all the ties I had with it. I don't know what happened with little Byakuya. If he survived or not that night. If he had been adopted of grew up in an orphanage. If he had been happy or lost himself on the way.

It may sound cruel, but this is the way things should be. Humans and shinigamis don't belong in the same world and this is a fact I was supposed to understand ever since I met Ichigo.

Shortly after I returned home, I retook all my responsibilities as the 29th leader of the Kuchiki clan. I also retook the seat of the lieutenant in the 13th Division on Ukitake's and Ichigo's insistences. Suddenly I became so busy that I barely had time to spend with my children… so even if I wanted I couldn't find the moment to think about what I left into the human world or what I used to have when Byakuya was alive.

Ichigo, as he promised, he left Soul Society, soon after I returned. I heard that he never got married or have any other children. But nothing can be sure because, ever since he left, we haven't talk. We both thought it's for the best. Instead, Ichirou asked me to let him keep in touch with him. I promised to let him visit the human world whenever he feels like under the condition of giving up his "shinigami dream". After a few discussions and attempts to convince me to let him have both, he finally accepted to have his zanpakuto locked forever. 4 years ago, he also decided to move definitively with Ichigo. They lived for a while in Tokyo, but last year he wrote to me, that they both established in Karakura. He writes me from time to time, narrating his daily life there and somehow he seems to be happy. In every letter that I write him back I always add a "PS" with the question: "Is Ichigo starting to o bald and look like an ugly old men?". I never receive and answer to that question. That makes me think that Ichigo also reads my letters. Somehow I want to think that he smiles when he does that.

So, for the last four years in this enormous manor only Haruna and I were left. But this also changed yesterday, after her engagement party, when she decided to move with her fiancé. A few months ago, Ukitake finally found the courage and came to confess a fact that I was aware of for ages: he was involved in romantic relation with my daughter. He also felt the need of pointing repeatedly that their relation "have only a sentimental nature and that they had never…" . Here he stopped as his face turned red. I told him that there was no need to act like this and that for my concern, he and Haruna are both adults and I could care less on what they do in their privacy. I also felt the need of pointing repeatedly that he and Haruna should do whatever their hearts tell them to do. Then he finally avowed that he intends to marry her. "Not at this moment, of course. But when she will be ready" he added. In reply, I invited him to ask her if she is ready. The conclusion of this story was the engagement party the Kuchiki family held yesterday.

Now, I can finally say that I remain by myself in this palace. I can't say that I complain. Lately, since both of my children took their lives on their own hands, I found myself rediscovering the relation I used to have with Renji. We are both lonely sometimes so we are keeping each other's company as we used to, back in Rukongai, when we were children. The only difference is that, now, none of us is a street rat anymore. I am a noble and he is the Captain of the 6th Division. Yes, he replaced Byakuya in Gotei 13. It wasn't something that he wished. He really hoped that he could surpass him one day in strength, but never thought of replacing him after his death. He initially tried to refuse the promotion, but surprisingly all the captains, unanimously, wanted him in charge with the 6th Division. Somehow I've got the feeling, that Byakuya himself would have wished the same…

With Renji being around I can say that it's easier to face the loneliness. Sometimes I even forget about it. For this I am grateful to him. I never got the change to tell him, but I'm sure he knows it. After the engagement party when I saw Haruna leaving with Ukitake and Ichirou going back to the human's world the depression took over me. But Renji was next to and cheered me up. He opened a bottle of sake and simply said: "Look on the bright side. Your job as mother ended so you have more time for yourself! Oh, fuck it! It's just the two of us left now, so let's enjoy ourselves! Just have a fucking drink, Rukia! You are allowed to get drunk tonight!"

The following day, which was today, both of us were too dizzy and hangover to perform our duties. So we decided to have a few glasses of milk and move our headquarters in my bedroom, the room I used to own before getting married. It was already noon when we were both lazing on soft pillows on the floor, looking around at all the spread documents from our headquarters. In the end, what initially supposed to be work, turned up to be a gossip session:

"Since the secret love of Ukitake Taicho was no longer a secret, we can say that the suddenly engagement party did not surprised any of us. What remains a curiosity though is the way Ukitake Taicho will continue to address to his lieutenant, since he will soon become her son-in-law. You should try an imagination exercise and picture our captain wandering on the halls of his headquarters while asking for Rukia Kuchiki: "Mom, could you please take care of the new recruits?". Amusing, indeed, but not impossible" Renji was reading out loud an article from the SWA magazine.

I started to laugh. Those girls knew how to point out the absurd of the situation. I'm sure that the article was written by Matsumoto and Nanao.

"Wait…I have more!" Renji added. "On the other hand, Haruna Kuchiki's engagement it's not the only one who is rumored to take place in the Kuchiki family. It's a well known fact that Renji Abarai, the captain of the 6th division and also the childhood friend of the 13th lieutenant, has been hanging around the Kuchiki manor a lot lately… Hmmm… I would say that I hear some wedding bells ringing!" Then Renji suddenly turned to me with a smirk. " So what say you, Rukia?"

I rolled my eyes with boredom.

"Renji, don't tell me that you are trying to propose me… again!"

"Why not? I will never get tired of that! And who knows? Maybe finally you will accept!"

But we both knew that it was just a joke. The dreams we had in Rukongai as children vanished long ago. Since that time I fell in love twice and I decided that my life had enough romance in it.

"Renji… better than reading the cancan press … you should better start to put your papers in order."

He threw away the magazine and while he started to eat a sandwich, he took a document from the floor:

"This seems interesting…" he said. "It appeasers that in the United States they have found another substitute shinigami…"

"How come?"

"She is a high school girl and she took the powers of the representative shinigami by mistake, while she was trying to defend herself from a hollow. It seems that the case have been discussed by the Central 46 and since the girl had accepted to give up her human life in order to become a full shinigami, they won't execute her. Furthermore a shinigami it's been requested to take care of her and prepare her to release her own zanpakuto."

Renji suddenly frowned:

"Why don't you go, Rukia?"

"Huh?" I replied confused.

"Go and train this girl!"

"No!" I replied instantly. "Why would i? This is not a mission for an lieutenant"

"Well don't take it as missions… take it as a vacation! You've been apathetically the last few years, Rukia! A little adventure won't do to you any wrong…" he added and handed me the paper.

I took it not fully convinced.

"I'm not apathetic, Renji! I've just become old…"

"Old my ass! You look like a highschool student!" he snapped. " Trust me, you need to get away from this place for a while! Or else the loneliness and depression will catch up with you…"

"I'm not lonely…I have you…"

"Right… but if you'll hang more around me, you'll start to drink so often and so much that you'll forget the reason you begun to drink in the first place… and you'll end up an alcoholic."

"I'm wondering Renji If you are picturing a future me or your actual self…" I said.

"Sarcastic as usual!" Renji replied with an annoyed smirk.

But then my eyes descend on the document. A trip to the United Stated. Hmmm… Maybe Renji was right…

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Mean while… on the other side of the world a teenage boy suddenly wake up from his sleep and looked around at his huge and luxuriously room…

"I've had that dream again…I was a child. My mother was still alive and she was always hurrying to leave for work. But I was never left alone… There were this other women who took care of me. She was small. She had a deep voice and long dark hair. These are the only the only feature I can distinguish about her. The rest it's always blurred…

Somehow, in my dreams I try to reach her. I keep running after her while holding a necklace on my hand, but she is always furthering away. I try to call her can't bring myself to pronounce her name.

Her name…

Her name…

Her name!…

I can't seem to remember it!

And then I wake up…

This dream. I always have it whenever I'm stressed or I eat a lot during dinner. This morning it was none of these cases…"

There was a knock on the door and a valet appeared:

"Cherry… the breakfast it prepared."

"I'm coming…" he replied and got off the bed with heavy, tired gestures. For a second he looked through the window and wondered himself if something will happened today that will change his life. He hoped so…

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Not more of an action... but it's an introduction, right?

Waiting for your feedback!