Friday, August 16, 2002

The Club for Those Concerned for Kurosaki Ichigo and Kuchiki Rukia didn't wind up in a hotel remotely as nice as that of their causes célèbres, but did at last find one nearby that was clean and nice enough. Urahara and Isshin were basically splitting the bill for the endeavor, with some input from the three teenagers and Renji.

In the name of economy, they doubled up for rooms, with the allocations being Renji and Ishida, Yoruichi and Inoue, Urahara and Chad, and Isshin and Karin and Yuzu, the last two sharing a twin bed. The arrangement seemed the most compact and comfortable way of dividing up all parties involved and kept one adult in each room. They hadn't brought luggage with them as they hadn't known whether they'd be staying, but Renji was rather easily able to use a senkaimon to procure bags they'd prepared in advance in case. Tessai, Ururu, and Jinta were tasked with keeping Karakura safe along with Zennosuke in everyone's absence; the Urahara Shop was closed for the weekend.

Urahara had known in advance that one of the benefits of sharing a room with Chad would be relative silence. The giant kept his thoughts to himself, and Urahara felt no particular need to talk about what had gone on. It had been a nice distraction that let his mind work on other problems subconsciously, but he still had to mentally attend to things.

"Yoruichi-san, did you notice the flowers they had?" Inoue asked contemplatively.

"Yeah, 'patiently grateful in keeping promises', or something like that," Yoruichi replied, also intimately familiar with hanakotoba as part of her upbringing. It sounded like something Ichigo might say.

"What do you think happened?" the princess continued. She didn't really mean to gossip, but it'd been very striking and seemed quite at odds with the way her friends had looked at one another.

"I think the answer to that was in their songs to one another," the Flash Goddess responded, not feeling bad about resolving the mystery. To help was why they were there and to do so required understanding. She heard the princess take in a breath as she seemed to put the pieces together all at once. The girl could be quite insightful, but she herself had much more experience in all things.

"They opened up really quickly and then . . ." Inoue murmured, even as she searched her newest memories of Ichigo. He'd seemed very determined and his disposition had radically changed and improved. Being around Rukia had definitely helped him tremendously, but there was something new in him. Rukia seemed likewise transformed from how she'd been weeks prior in the Urahara Shop. Their songs had clearly not been about 'love' per se, despite it featuring prominently in the lyrics of both, but everything else. Even still, that word was more correct than anything else, and they probably knew it too, whether they'd admit it or not. People who only just liked one another didn't sing to each other. Not like that.

"It'll probably take them quite awhile still," Yoruichi said quietly. It was likely less that they didn't know on at least some level, and more that they were hopelessly lost as to what to do about it. Both of them were rather complex when it came to such things, and Rukia had additional considerations to take into account as well. It was actually less real cluelessness and more a deliberate and studied perceptual blindness. Having that suddenly fail them was probably highly disorienting and disconcerting. She glanced over at the princess in consideration for a moment before asking "What about you?"

Inoue blinked in surprise and looked back before smiling broadly and saying "It was all I could do not to giggle the whole time." It was true. It had stung just a little, but that had been so far and away outweighed by what she had witnessed. To see Ichigo and Rukia like that was very special.

The Flash Goddess watched her for a second longer before smiling softly. The teenager was eccentric, but very caring and wise in her own way. A thought suddenly struck her. "I think that maybe the best thing we could do is to split them up for a day."

"Eh?" was Inoue's response.

"We could take them on a separate girl's and boy's day out. They've been around each other non-stop for weeks, giving them time to decompress with friends would probably be good for them," Yoruichi said with confidence.

Inoue was about to say something when Yoruichi's soul pager pinged.

"Oh, looks like it's here," the cat-woman said with a small grin.

"What is?" the princess asked.

"Want to watch it all again before we start to get ready for bed?" Yoruichi asked with a devilish little smile, waving the device.

"Yoruichi-san, it's not nice to record people without their consent!" Inoue admonished in a hushed whisper as she got up and sat on the other woman's bed to watch it with her. There was no way she'd miss seeing it again, plus it'd let her see her own performance.

Renji tapped at his soul pager, sending the video file to Yoruichi for posterity.

Ishida glanced over, having noticed what had been going on but not having opposed it. Still . . . "Do you have to send it to them?" he asked, knowing that wasn't the only place the video was going.

The crimson-haired Shinigami said "Yeah," before tapping out a brief message reading "These were intended as representative messages for or as personal thoughts regarding Kuchiki Rukia," in text. He paused before saying "I think it'll help anyway." He was, orders or not, still unwilling to do things that didn't assist the pair. He'd never been officially debriefed regarding his earlier efforts and so he simply intended to continue on in his own way, satisfied that his judgment had been correct the first time and likely still was.

The Quincy narrowed his eyes at the assertion but didn't say anything.

Renji hit send before he could be dissuaded, sending two separate copies to Byakuya and Ukitake before closing the soul pager and tossing it aside on the bed. "Rukia did sing when we were kids but never like that," he said. "It was never so . . . Anyway, I sincerely doubt Kuchiki-taichō has ever heard her sound remotely like that, if at all."

"Do you really think it will improve his disposition with regard to whatever it is he's doing?" Ishida asked. He didn't think either Ichigo or Rukia had taken their songs for one another as a full confession of their feelings in the understanding that karaoke was necessarily about predefined messages, but with the way they sang, the looks they gave one another, and the copious use of the word 'love' one could certainly think otherwise. In fact they'd probably been much truer than either would ever admit . . . at least his presence on stage with Ichigo would give his orange-haired associate some cover.

"I think hearing her so free and expressive will make up for anything else," Renji said with unusual thoughtfulness. He also had the feeling the taichō knew a lot more than he let on. His attitude on the day Rukia and Ichigo had been in Soul Society had been odd.

Ishida considered that for a moment before getting up to shower for bed.

Karin and Yuzu had waited until their dad was in the shower to really start talking, even if he was unusually well-behaved that night.

"Onii-chan was really happy," Yuzu said. She'd heard it and more besides in the way he'd sung and interacted with them afterwards.

"He's really lucky to have someone like Rukia-nē," Karin said matter-of-factly.

"Karin-chan, don't say it so coldly!" Yuzu rebuked.

"It's just the truth," her sister replied. She still found herself haunted by how moving Rukia's song for him had been. A lot of things had come into sharper focus with that. "She . . . really cares about him," she added quietly. Seeing the true depths of Rukia's concern for Ichigo had tremendously deepened her respect for the petite Shinigami.

"I wonder what they talk about at night," Yuzu wondered aloud. She had noticed their beds side by side, although she hadn't thought much of it.

"Probably not a lot," Karin said, although she didn't put any innuendo into it despite often teasing her sister about the fact their brother wasn't likely nearly as pure as she imagined. There was something else in how they looked at one another. She was sure they'd talked a lot, but at the same time the whole point of the night had seemed to be there were things they couldn't or wouldn't talk about. She'd heard the teenagers and adults talking occasionally, and knew that wasn't just her opinion.

Yuzu let out a small huff, asking "Why do people get so difficult when they get older?"

"You're just naïve," Karin replied.

"Karin-chan!" Yuzu said with annoyance, before clamming up as their dad suddenly exited the bathroom.

The sisters glanced at one another as if to come up with some other subject they could pretend to have been talking about, only to be caught off guard as Isshin let out a small sigh while getting his toothbrush, saying wistfully "It is annoying, isn't it?"

Karin and Yuzu stared at one another before glaring toward him, wondering how much he'd heard and why he was acting so weirdly.

Ukitake tapped at the screen of his soul pager to pause the playback, saying with just a bit of studied criticism "If you're going to listen, you might as well come in and watch too."

Sentarō and Kiyone abruptly became quiet outside, and after only a moment the door opened, both walking in with chagrined expressions. They took up positions standing behind their taichō so they could see the footage as well as hear clearly, both silent for once.

Ukitake smiled a little to himself and resumed the playback. The message had come in while he was still working. He only sort of knew some English due to his responsibilities as a taichō, but the sentiments that were on display were clear enough, especially Ichigo's. They were just coming up to Rukia's performance.

All of them blinked as her demeanor changed on the stage and they could only stare, mouths ajar, as she actually began to sing. This wasn't the hardened fukutaichō they'd recently become used to, the unseated soldier, the prisoner in the Senzaikyū, the uncertain rookie, or the lowly assistant Kiyone'd had so long ago. Who was this new, astonishing Rukia? None of them had ever seen her before, let alone heard her. As the performance ended and she bowed she was once more someone familiar to them, although she just as much wasn't as she looked to Ichigo. She looked genuinely happy, if also embarrassed. It was a marked contrast to the sadness in the song.

The kind taichō found he couldn't help but smile.

Behind him Kiyone sniffed, drawing an extremely-rarely-seen concerned glance from Sentarō. Once, a long time ago, she'd found Rukia singing quietly to herself; it'd been quite pretty sounding, but she'd never heard it again and it hadn't sounded anything at all like that. She looked away while wiping at her eyes with one of her gloves.

"Ichigo-kun knew," Ukitake ventured quietly. It'd been obvious from his tone when he'd asked her to sing and the looks he'd given, even though he was looking away from the camera as the footage ended. He'd heard something like it before somehow.

"Taichō," Kiyone whispered, "I've only ever heard her sing one time before . . ."

It was clear to both men from her tone alone when exactly that had been before. Neither said anything for awhile. "Perhaps I should make a call," Ukitake stated cryptically, rising and taking his leave from his official duties for the night. Neither 3rd Seat followed him.

Byakuya's eyebrow came back down at the conclusion of Yoruichi's performance and his brows drew together in concentration as it became apparent Ichigo would be next. He was alone in his personal office in the Kuchiki manor, having retired there shortly after the message from Renji had come in. He'd noted the text message and had studied the video and audio with interest.

As part of his various duties as a noble he'd acquired a robust working knowledge of English as its importance in the Living World had increased and was more than able to keep up with the songs. Modern music usually left him ambivalent at best, but the messages that were being conveyed were clear enough and Ichigo's associates had obviously put effort into their performances. This had been planned. They were each in their own way trying to encourage Rukia, or both her and Ichigo.

He likewise understood that the songs had fixed lyrics and didn't necessarily reflect the full and true feelings of the singers. Nonetheless, the way Ichigo sang was from the heart. It was perhaps truer than the boy anticipated or knew. He wasn't entirely enthused about it but was unsurprised and could appreciate the sincerity. The fact he'd performed with the Quincy seemed to be an integral part of the song but also changed the emphasis. It was evident that the 'pressure' aspect of the song had been selected for over the 'love' aspect, but also clear that the latter was considered no impediment. He already knew Ichigo and Rukia had revealed they had feelings for one another so there was no shock there.

What happened after Ichigo's performance was even more interesting. The reaction of the crowd, with their cacophonous cheering of the clan name, was most curious. They'd earnestly wanted to hear his sister after all these requests, despite having surely never heard her before. The camera eventually revealed Rukia moving forward to talk with the music operator. Byakuya noted her dress with approval. He watched as they seemed to converse in some way for a few minutes before she got onto the stage. She looked confident.

He'd heard her sing once long ago when she'd been asked to demonstrate her aptitude at the arts and she'd been halting and awkward then. She'd never returned to it and had pursued seemingly almost any other artistic pursuit she could instead in the years since. He'd always assumed she simply didn't care for it.

His eyes widened marginally as he saw the change that came over her as she prepared herself and the look she gave to Ichigo as she delivered the opening lines. Neither prepared him for her actual performance and he sat in stunned silence as she sang out from the small device. It was only when she finished and bowed to a cavalcade of applause that he managed to reassert full control over his expression. He watched as she left the stage and turned to see Ichigo, and then the video ended.

Byakuya stared at the screen for a second further before turning off the soul pager's screen and setting it down on the desk. He sat in contemplation for a moment with everything he'd just observed. His sister had also been truer than maybe even she knew. Once again the word 'love' was simply how the song went. It was everything else in the song that had been selected for.

His estimation was that the two had declared affections for one another at some level but weren't confessing their love in front of random strangers, friends, and Ichigo's family—even if the sentiment was actually accurate. Rukia wasn't the type for that and neither was Ichigo. They'd been trying to communicate a deep mutual indecision about how to proceed. He could guess why that was. His sister's reserve and observation of decorum heartened him on one hand, but on the other . . . She sounded so pained.

He allowed himself to briefly reflect once more on his time with Hisana, on his own conduct then, and on her last request. His thoughts then turned to tradition, and then more specifically to the rules of the clan. He'd been contemplating this all for some time, and returned to what he'd already decided.

Officially speaking, absolutely nothing that Ichigo and Rukia did together or could do together truly mattered until a marriage had been arranged for the latter—provided she didn't bring shame upon the clan. No such marriage had been arranged, and so all that were left were two questions: was Ichigo an apt suitor for her, and what exactly was shameful to the clan?

He'd determined the first to be an affirmative long before meeting with them and nothing in that calculation had changed. Ichigo's lineage was easily confirmed and his war record and likely future status made him a more than adequate suitor for her. The Shiba effectively no longer existed politically and so it was only to the Kuchiki clan's gain to associate with him as any possible union wouldn't be shared but theirs and theirs alone. Politically speaking, such an arrangement would 'capture' him. That granted, he was not only an acceptable suitor for her, but given she had no other suitors, there was no shame in allowing her to freely associate with him as she was doing the clan a service by doing so. That Rukia had no other suitors because Byakuya had methodically denied them access over time was unimportant. Whether there would be a union at some point in time was a different question.

Unofficially speaking, the boy had changed things and his character and treatment of Rukia were essentially unimpeachable. If they continued on he would eventually have to insist on an arrangement, but at the same time he felt that was a matter they would likely arrive at on their own, and something not in the near future at any rate. They were already trapped by one another, so adding his own entrapment on top was unnecessary.

The only consideration that was truly at hand was whether there were things Rukia could do that would bring shame upon the clan.

Officially, the answer to that was no. The clan existed in Soul Society, and Rukia was stationed in the Living World. If she drew Ichigo to them and the opinions of humans were unimportant—which they were—then there was nothing she could do to discredit them because everything she did was necessarily to the clan's gain. Furthermore, it would be easy to control information coming back as he himself was one of the main points of contact.

Unofficially, what was shameful was at his discretion. He considered how astonishingly liberated she'd seemed while singing. Something that the Espada Zommari had said during their battle the year prior returned unbidden to him then: All things have 'sovereignty' . . . the moonlight is ruled by the light of the sun. He frowned at that before the smallest of smirks appeared on his face. Perhaps, despite your impudence, you knew one truth after all. Kurosaki Ichigo, it would seem I am yet again in your debt. It didn't take him much thought to reach his decision: the only one whom Rukia could shame in association with Ichigo was herself. She should be free to conduct herself as she saw fit, at the pace she saw fit to do so. If she was satisfied it wasn't his concern.

Having come to a conclusion as both the head of the clan and as her brother, Byakuya picked up the soul pager again and began to issue paperwork for expediting his various requests, likewise scheduling meetings to do the same. He would have to communicate such a matter directly to her in private, and so the continuing freeze on his leave to attend to matters in Karakura not only had to be lifted, but his departure to the Living World had to be moved up. Nothing less was acceptable. He was some ways along in this effort when suddenly the soul pager's screen cut away to an incoming call. He raised an eyebrow at seeing the caller was Ukitake and accepted it.

He was far too preoccupied with his observations and everything afterwards to notice the shock of pink hair that'd been poking up above one of the office's windows the entire time.