A/N: It seems like I'm always apologizing for the long wait between updates, but it is true. I had been so caught up with work and etc that I had no time whatsoever until now. The 5-months long summer I have should mean that I get to update more frequently now. Thank you for all of your patience.
Please enjoy and leave your thoughts.
"So, Kisuke, what's my idiot son been up to these days? Last I heard he quit his job at the hospital and ran off somewhere."
"Ah well, I'd guess that he's rather preoccupied with Miss Kuchiki at the moment."
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the telephone, but Isshin was never at a loss of words for long.
"I'm going to teach that boy a thing or two when I find him for not telling me that my third daughter is back."
"I'm surprised you have no doubt that it's the real Rukia." Urahara said with a chuckle.
"If nothing else, I trust Ichigo's judgement." There was a rare note of seriousness in Isshin's voice. "I've been trying to contact you for the past week, where were you?"
"You are not curious about her?"
"Well, I assume that it has something to do with where you went last week."
"Touché. I did take a trip to Soul Society last week, to pay a visit to Byakuya and get my hands on some information."
"How's my in-law?"
"Careful now, Isshin, cherry blossom season is over and I think we'd all like it to stay that way." Urahara remembered suddenly with a wince, "though I'm in no place to say, as somehow in the course of conversation I had to tell him about Rukia."
"Spill it, Kisuke."
"I went to see Byakuya because I caught wind that there was a break-in at the Kuchiki house sometime ago. I got his word that it was Ichimaru Gin, and the only thing that went missing was the remnants of Miss Kuchiki's zanpakuto."
"I must say I'm insulted that you've taken so long to inform me of this."
"I didn't think you want to be involved again after so long."
"Well, it's my third daughter we are talking about." A familiar note was creeping back into Isshin's voice, and evoking a laugh from Urahara.
"Of all people, Isshin, you leave me guessing more often than not."
"I'll pay you a visit tomorrow. Keep me updated in the meanwhile."
"Of course."
Isshin hung up the phone and leaned back in his chair with a sigh. He turned off the desk lamp to watch the moonlight stream through the open window, and closed his eyes for a moment. Funny how alike the three of them really were, himself, Byakuya and Ichigo, all having fallen in love with someone they should not have and lost them in the end all the same. If he could give Ichigo any help, any at all, in avoiding the same fate this time around, he wished that he could.
Opening his eyes, Isshin saw his wife smiling at him from a chair across the room. From time to time, maybe it was out of the senility of old age, he would see Masaki coming to pay him a visit when the moon was at just the right place in the night sky.
"Is Ichigo in some kind of trouble?"
"He's learning how to protect the woman that he loves. Damn that kid for trying to show his old man up." Isshin said all the while with a weary smile on his lips.
Masaki stood up from her chair and knelt down beside him. Placing a hand over his cheek, she looked up and said:
"Ichigo is growing up to be like you, and she must be a very special woman."
"That she is. Without her, Ichigo wouldn't be here."
"You told me that she saved Ichigo and the twins once."
"Long before that, remember the day that Ichigo was born?"
"I remember there was a lot of commotion, you told me later it was a hollow attack?"
"I never told you that she was the shinigami who save us. My powers were sealed then, so I couldn't do anything. Years later when Ichigo brought her home, I recognized her at once."
"I'm sorry I never got the chance to thank her." Masaki exclaimed in her usual gentle manner with a smile.
"Leave that to Ichigo, I think he will do just fine." Isshin took a hold of his wife's hand on his face and felt the familiar warmth from them.
"He must love her very much."
"I'm worried that won't be enough. There are some things we can't win against, like how I never managed to protect you."
"But I managed to protect Ichigo, so he could fulfill his namesake. Trust our son." Isshin could feel her hand withdrawing from underneath his, as time must be running out. "I'm so happy that I met you, Isshin, and that we had our three children. So happy..."
Isshin watched as Masaki's form melted into a pearly strand that slowly became indistinguishable from the moonlight. He blinked a few times and stretched out his limbs before standing up from the chair.
You are one lucky man, Isshin.
Ichigo did not know how to react when Rukia took up drawing again. On one hand, it was comforting that she was as bad at it as she ever was. But on the other hand, it was disconcerting just how bad at it she still was.
At the moment, he was sitting on the back porch watching her scribbling something with a pencil, sheets of "completed works" were scattered all about her. Chappy, which she insisted would be the kitten's name, was sitting across from her on the other side of the paper, staring intently at it. Ichigo decided that like himself, Chappy was trying to understand just what Rukia was drawing.
"Done."
Picking up Chappy from the ground, Ichigo sat down beside her to witness the newest piece. As soon as he saw it though, he had to admit that despite living fifteen more years, he was no better at controlling at twitch in the corner of his mouth.
"What's happening this time?" Ichigo was really trying hard to decipher the mass of lightning bolts and cat ears.
"Well, here," she pointed at a figure (as Ichigo really did not know what to call it) in a white dress, "Yuki is going far away to fight the monster that was living in the mountain. She had nothing but her trusty sword."
"This... is her sword then?" Ichigo pointed at something that resembled a mass of ribbons. Did she remember something about Shirayuki?
"Yep. So she went up the mountain and found the dark monster living there. He had long, wild hair and a big sword too. "
Ichigo smacked a hand to his forehead and asked the gods why. There was Zangetsu, looking more like a meat cleaver the way she had drawn it with zigzagged pencil etchings. And the person, if it could be so called, holding it bared an undeniable likeness to the Old Man, though Ichigo was not sure if it was an insult to him just by admitting that.
"But the monster was no match for Yuki's powers," and Rukia moved on the last instalment of the story, "so in the end she defeated him and saved her people." Judging by the last drawing, it looked like Old Man Zangetsu was conked over the head and fainted at Yuki's feet, who was being cheered by her people.
"Um, did you think this up all by yourself?" He tried to be gentle, really.
"Nope, Shirayuki told me this story a while ago."
"But was it necessarily to make them all look like Chappy? I mean-"
The next moment left Ichigo doubled over with the pain from a blow to his head. He was so surprised that for a moment he did not know what had just happened. Looking up, Rukia seemed just as shocked as he was that she just hit him.
"I-I'm, I'm so sorry!" Immediately she took his head in her hands to check if she did any lasting damage.
Ichigo laughed out loud all of a sudden, making Rukia even more panicked at what she just did. Sadly, he missed it, to have her knocking some sense into him. So he gathered her into his arms and held her still for a moment.
"Did I used to hit your too? Like this?" Her voice came in a whisper from against his neck.
"Yep, not only on my head, you liked slapping me and kicking me on the back too."
He could just imagine her face suddenly surged with blood, as she burrowed deeper into his hold in embarrassment.
"Welcome back, Rukia."
"Captain Kuchiki." Ukitake dropped his voice as the two men approached each other in the corridor, "I have some news."
"What is it?"
"I pulled some strings in Central Room 46 and Squad 12, and managed to get a channel open in Kurakara, the town in which Kurosaki Ichigo resided until a short while ago. As it turns out, something was out of the ordinary. There have not been any reports from the shinigami stationed there for quite a few months now, and we have good reason to believe that it is because no one is actually there. However, there is no evidence of an increase in the number of hollow attacks either."
"You suspect there is a third party involved?"
"Not only that, screening of the news feed in the real world showed that since a few months ago there was a number of attacks on young girls, all of whom recovered with no memories of the incident. Obviously they do not appear to be hollow related, but the series of attacks came to an abrupt stop about the time that you said Urahara Kisuke came to visit you."
"And you wonder if it was no coincidence, that the attacks were somehow related to Rukia's reappearance." Byakuya's eyes widened imperceptibly.
"Yes. The entire affair is peculiar. It is not so much that the rules tightened, but rather that all these occurrences were hidden so well by those new rules."
"Someone is looking for Rukia and does not want anyone to know it."
"It looks that way, yes."
"How trustworthy is your connection in Central Room 46?"
"He was an old classmate of mine at the academy, I have known him a very long time. What are you planning?"
"The Kuchiki family has its own Sekaimon as privilege of being a noble house."
"I am afraid that my connection does not have enough power to get you the permission to open a Sekaimon to the real world." Ukitake seemed surprised at Byakuya's audacity in suggesting such a thing.
"I do not intend to obtain anyone's permission, as long as your connection does not betray our doings to anyone. I will go to the real world myself to retrieve Rukia."
"I see. If you need any assistance, Captain Ku- "
"No need, this is a private matter of the Kuchiki family. However, I am much obliged to your assistance."
Gin could never quite forget that he owe his life to a mere oversight.
He was still a child when it happened. The Ichimaru family was counted among the minor nobles, as his grandfather at the time was a member in the Central Room 46. Having lived his entire life in the quiet confines of the family house, it was more than understandable that Gin would have no idea what the sudden blast at the front gate would mean for himself and the rest of his life. He remembered that he was in his grandfather's study that morning, as always on the days where his grandfather was back from the office.
Unlike Gin, his grandfather was immediately alarmed by the far-off commotion and waved over one of his personal guards.
"Taneda, take Gin." With that, he knelt down to Gin's level and said, "stay where he takes you and do not move an inch. No matter what you hear or what you see, do not move or make a sound. I will come back for you when it's all over. Understand?"
Feeling that it was the only appropriate thing to do at the moment, frantically Gin nodded a few times and allowed himself to be taken by the shoulders by the man beside him. Before he could catch a last glimpse of his grandfather's figure, everything flashed out of sight as Taneda launched into shunpo with him in his arms.
"Where are you taking me?"
"Ichimaru-sama has instructed me to take you to the location in the event that this happens."
"What's the location? And what's happening?"
Perhaps realizing that he had said too much, Taneda remained silent the entire way despite Gin's inquiries. When the world materialized again, he found the two of them in a dark room with nothing but bare walls. Before he could ask, Taneda stood before a particular wall and drew out spells with his fingers as if doing kido. At its completion, a door surfaced into view and he was shoved into it.
"Remember Ichimaru-sama's instructions. The door is made of stone that absorbs reiatsu, so as long as you stay inside, they won't find you. I'll be back personally to get you when this is over. So do not move for anything."
And at that, the door closed leaving him in total darkness.
How long had he stayed in there, believing that this was just a bizarre interlude and that normal life would resume in a short while? Long enough to realize that it was not. Curiosity and loyalty to his grandfather's instructions fought in him until he mustered up enough courage to push open the smallest crack, the creak thunderous in his ears. The first thing he thought was how lonely the air felt, without the bustle of –
Panic and horror seized his heart in an instant. Gin scrambled out of his hiding place into the room, trying in vain in keep his heart still as he sought the faintest trace of reiatsu in the air. He thought he felt something for an instant, but very soon emptiness came back as the only answer. A void that was frighteningly endless.
For the next few days, he scoured the house. But with every corner he turned, destruction and death met him with a menacing certainty. Only when every trace of strength left him and Gin collapsed in the middle of the courtyard, it became painfully clear that the Ichimaru house was no more.
The peculiarity with which the entire event transpired only occurred to him much later in life, years after he woke up to find himself in Rukongai and learned to survive like the wild dogs that wandered the streets. Thankfully he had spiritual power, being the only way out of this hell was to become a shinigami. But that was not why he wanted to go. One day, he followed the crowd on the street outside of his dwelling to find a train of shinigami's passing by. Gin was too short to have caught any of their faces, but what he did catch was a trace of the reiatsu of a dead man. He never forgot that last strand of reiatsu that brought him the tiny glimmer of hope on that fated day.
Come to think of it, he came to be where he was now just chasing it, chasing it in the hope that one day he will extinguish it with his own hands.