Hi everyone! Sorry for the long update, I've been away on vacation. Well, here's the 21st chappie, I hope you like it!
As we all know...I do not own bleach...if I did ByaRuki would be happening already LOL.
On with the story!
Urahara looked puzzled at the four yawning shinigami sitting in front of him, they all had dark circles under their eyes, and the younger Kuchiki was already drifting off over her tea, her eyes half open as she struggled not to fall asleep.
The other two shifted on their sits rather uncomfortably while Byakuya kept his stoic features in place.
"Did you sleep well last night? You all seem pretty tired" commented Urahara examining them carefully.
While Byakuya just decided to ignore the comment, a faint smile crept up Shuuhei's face, Rukia blushed deeply, and Renji scratched the back of his head nervously. Urahara sighed, it was very clear now that he was not getting an explanation from them.
"Well, I think I'm going to give you some soldier-pills, but just for today. Whatever it is that kept you awake last night…don't do it again, we need to start training today, especially you Kuchiki-San" said Urahara calmly, looking at Rukia.
"Kuchikis don't need soldier-pills, Urahara Kisuke" replied Byakuya severely.
"Well, you may not because you are a noble, but Rukia…"
"Rukia is a noble a well" interrupted Byakuya glaring at Urahara.
"W…what do you mean by that?" he asked quite puzzled, drifting his eyes to Rukia, who was falling asleep again.
"Is she really?" asked Yoruichi while entering the room. Byakuya just nodded.
She stood frozen in place, staring at Rukia with a lopsided grin.
"How long?" she asked
"Not long" replied Byakuya while Urahara kept shifting his gaze from one to another, not really understanding what they were talking about.
"Well, if she is a Kuchiki and a truly noble…then I am to train her now, ne?" asked Yoruichi playfully, not missing the slight twitch of irritation in Byakuya's eye.
"Care to explain what's going on here?" asked Urahara a bit annoyed.
"I will train her, Shihoin, not you"
"Don't be so grumpy Byakuya-Bo…it is my duty after all, or are you trying to defy Ginrei's command now?" she replied with a strange glint in her eyes. Byakuya gritted his teeth and looked away, making her grin widen.
"That's what I thought" she chuckled and swiftly grabbed Rukia's arm, startling the half-asleep girl.
"Again, is anyone going to explain this to me?" insisted Urahara, now fully annoyed.
"Come with me Kuchiki-San, we have lots of work to do. Byakuya enlighten Kisuke for me, ne?"
"Yoruichi-San, where are you taking me…what's going on?" asked Rukia quite confused.
"We'll be downstairs training, make sure no one comes in Kisuke" said Yoruichi severely before disappearing, dragging Rukia along.
Urahara sighed and spread his fan, gazing at Byakuya who not looked even more irritated than he was.
"Ano…I think we better go find Ichigo and the rest, ne?" said Renji
"Yes, you better do that" replied Urahara not averting his eyes from Byakuya.
"Come, Shuuhei" said Renji standing up.
"We'll be back soon, hopefully with all of them, se we can start training" said Shuuhei and with that they left, leaving Urahara and Byakuya alone.
"So?" asked Urahara anxiously, making Byakuya sigh.
"Urahara Kisuke, this information is still highly classified" stated Byakuya severely; Urahara nodded, and listened carefully to the captain's explanation.
"Come on, you are much faster and stronger than this!" Yoruichi reprimanded Rukia as she missed another attack with her Bankai.
They've been at it for 10 hours now and Rukia was tired and frustrated, Yoruichi kept pushing her limits and after her last comment it was official: Kuchiki Rukia was pissed off.
Then something changed about her. Her eyes, usually a deep indigo-violet colour, turned into a brighter shade of purple, her dress also grew longer and above her head the halo contracted and lowered, looking almost as a crown. Yoruichi's eyes widened. When she first saw Rukia's Bankai liberation she was deeply surprised, the girl not only had an emperor-type Bankai, but it was also breath-taking beautiful. Now she was shocked all over again, for her Bankai's just changed.
Rukia the parted her lips with a faint grin, and shot her eyes up to Yoruichi.
"Tōketsu, Yukiteiken!" yelled Rukia while pointing her sword to the sky.
Yoruichi trembled as she saw a blinding white ray shoot from the tip of Rukia's blade. Then everything went cold.
'Damn he is hotter than I remembered' thought Orihime Inoue while checking Byakuya up. A few hours ago she came into Urahara's shoten, along with Ichigo and Uryu. Now they were split apart, Uryu training with Shuuhei Hisagi, Ichigo with Urahara and the vizards, and she was left with Renji, while a bored-looking Kuchiki Byakuya observed them.
"You need to focus, Inoue-San, Tsubaki is still not responding to your call" reprimanded Renji.
"Oh…S…sorry Renji-San I…I am a bit tired" replied Orihime shyly. Renji turned to look at his captain and caught the slight shook of disapproval of Byakuya's head. He agreed with his captain, though. The girl was not even trying, and their situation was quite severe, with Rukia bounded to remain in her gigai at all times in order to hide her spiritual power from the espada, there were only three shinigami left to protect this almost powerless humans from being kidnapped, and if they were not able to at least defend themselves for a while in case of an attack…they did not stood a chance.
"Oh…okay Inoue-San, let's call it a day, ne?" said Renji handing Orihime a bottle of water, earning a relieved nod from the orange-haired girl.
He then walk toward Byakuya and stood beside him. They both watched the girl gulping the water almost desperately.
"She is useless" stated Byakuya calmly.
"Ya…she can still heal though"
"At least" mumbled Byakuya.
"Hey, I wonder how Rukia is doing" commented Renji happily, looking how Byakuya's eyes softened at the mention of her name.
"Mee too, Abarai"
"So…you and Rukia huh?" asked Renji with a grin.
"Yes, Rukia and I, Abarai…but remember that is not for everyone to know yet"
"What do you mean, Taichou?" asked Renji frowning, while Byakuya sighed.
"Remember the meetings with the elders that kept me from coming along with you?" Renji nodded.
"Well, Rukia's…new achievement is in fact even more extraordinary than I assumed, so the elders were planning to marry her off with the spirit-king's son" said Byakuya with a hint of deep sorrow in his voice, Renji did not fail to notice.
"WHAT?"
"That is why I kept our…closeness from the elders, while secretly sending the spirit-king a letter, informing him of my intentions to marry Rukia myself" replied Byakuya calmly.
"HOLLY SHIT TAICHOU! You want to marry her?" asked Renji almost shouting.
"Keep your voice down, Abarai" said Byakuya darkly, piercing Renji with his glare
"S…sorry Taichou!" apologized the red head.
"I do Renji…but I haven't asked her yet" Renji observed his Taichou and noticed something was off.
"Why haven't you?" he carefully asked.
"…I…need more time"
"What…don't tell me you are not sure about your feelings Taichou, because if that's it then I do not care of you are stronger than me…I will kill you for hurting her" Byakuya was shocked by Renji's words, but turning to look at his Fukutaichou he was more shocked by the look in his eyes. Renji was being very serious about his threat, his look showed real killing intent. Byakuya smiled at Renji, it was a faint, almost imperceptible slime, but it was there nevertheless.
"Protective of her, are you not Abarai?" asked Byakuya a bit amused.
"Don't change the subject Taichou, I will not let you hurt Rukia, she already had enough of suffering" threatened Renji again.
"It is not me who needs time Renji…it is her" stated Byakuya looking away from Renji.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Wow Renji-San, you surely did not go easy on me" said Orihime coming to them.
'I did go easy on you, stupid girl' thought Renji, annoyed by the interruption.
"I wonder how Kurosaki-Kun and the others are"
"I am sure they are just fine" replied Byakuya not looking at the girl.
"You think so, Kuchiki Taichou? Well, in that case I guess I'll take your word, since you know so much" she said coming closer to Byakuya, slightly rubbing her breasts against his arm. Renji was taken aback by the flirty tone in the girl's voice, and even more by her bold actions. He looked at his Taichou, panicking about how he was going to react, but Byakuya took a graceful step away from the girl, the disgust evident in his face, and then addressed to his Fukutaichou.
"I think we better go back up, Renji"
"Hai Taichou" replied Renji with a smile.
They were almost at the top of the stairs when a loud explosion startled them, and the whole underground training-ground shook violently.
Urahara Kisuke and Kurosaki Ichigo entered the Shoten. Ichigo was exhausted after spending many hours training with the vizards, with very little improvement. He was also half-hearted, because he understood the importance of getting his powers back, not only to defend himself, but also to protect his friends and family. Urahara noticed his gloomy aura, and tried to cheer the boy up.
"It was great progress to be able to materialize you zampakutou, Kurosaki-San"
"I guess…I still don't even have shikai though…" commented Ichigo with a depressed tone.
"Don't worry, Kurosaki-San, you'll get there soon" said Urahara placing a comforting hand on Ichigo's shoulder.
They sat at the table in the living room and Urahara was about to ask Ririn to get them some tea when the entire shoten quaked and a deafening explosion make their ears bleed.
When Shuuhei and Ishida heard the explosion, they ran. They bumped into the others half-way there, and they looked as confused and they were. No one knew what happened, but the noise…it came from where Rukia and Yoruichi were, Ishida knew it just by taking one look at Ichigo's pained face; he closed his eyes shut, and said a silent prayer as he ran as fast as he could. 'Please don't die on him now, Kuchiki-San'
When they got the training ground they were all shocked beyond any imaginable word. There was nothing left, nothing at all; just a huge, deep, and much frozen hole in the ground where the training area was, nothing more.
In the middle of the hole lay a much harmed, unconscious Yoruichi with Rukia crying and kneeling beside her, trying desperately to heal her with her kidou.
"I am sorry Yoruichi-San, please…I AM SO SORRY!" cried Rukia painfully.
Urahara ran to them and saw Yoruichi was in a very, very bad state. He couldn't help the crush inside his heart seeing her like that.
Byakuya flash stepped next to Rukia and for a second he stared at her with his eyes wide opened, unable to say a word.
'Why is she sorry…did she really do this?' wondered Byakuya. Then he saw Urahara kneeling beside Yoruichi as he started healing her with Kidou too, and reacted. He called at Renji and Shuuhei as he kneeled himself beside Yoruichi.
The lieutenants joined them quickly, and the five set of hands covered Yoruichi's broken body with healing kidou.
It took them almost an hour; an hour during which Rukia's silent tears kept flowing as she repeated sorry over and over again. An hour during which the three humans watched them quietly, unable to assist them in any way; an hour of Urahara's heart clenching inside his chest until Yoruichi's eyes finally fluttered open.
The light coming from their hands stopped shining and they all fell back, exhausted. Yoruichi sat up slowly, and quickly noticed the relieved look on Urahara's face and the wetness in Rukia's cheeks. She extended and arm and lovingly caressed Urahara's face.
"I am okay, Kisuke" she said softly, as Urahara leaned against her hand, kissing it and making her smile. Then she turned to look at Rukia, and noticed the girl was bowing her head as tears kept running down her face. She hooked a finger under her chin, making her look up at her.
"It was not your fault, Kuchiki-San, I misjudged your power" Rukia looked at Yoruichi with wide, saddened eyes.
"I am so sorry Yoruichi-San I…I don't know what happened that…that did not happen before…"
"So I was the first one to see it then?" asked Yoruichi quite excited, surprising everyone.
"The first one to see what?" asked Byakuya confused. Yoruichi averted her eyes from Rukia to look at him, and with a playful smirk she simply replied:
"The second liberation of her Bankai" at hearing her words, everyone, even the humans, gasped.
So...how was that? I know, I know...not much ByaRuki moments in this chapter...don't worry, it's coming! If you liked it, please review and make me happy, okay? See you soon!