Saturday, August 17, 2002
Rukia disabled her soul pager by learned reflex after only the second "Pyon!" had rung out, silently cursing herself for having made the recording in the first place. Being woken up by a past version of herself was a particularly cruel experience. She blinked her eyes open and sat up with a sigh before glancing over to Ichigo's bed. He stirred but didn't wake. She was immediately hit by a flood of memories from the previous night and found herself staring at him in the mild darkness. Her expression softened after many seconds and she smiled a little, deciding to let him sleep in while she dressed. She quietly got up and retrieved clothes before going to the bathroom.
Ichigo was gently coerced into waking by a hand shaking his shoulder and calls of his name. He opened his eyes and turned to find Rukia sitting behind him. She was dressed.
"Hey," she said. It was the first thing he'd heard her say to him since they'd arrived back in the suite.
He stared as recollections of the previous night washed over him before saying "Hey," back. He blinked before muttering "Crap," and sat up, pulling the covers off himself. He'd slept in.
Rukia returned her hand lightly to his shoulder to still him and gave him with just a small smile. "We're still on time," she said, "I just let you sleep while I dressed. Don't worry." She withdrew her hand and got off the bed, making it easier for him to do the same. "It's only 8:29 AM, so if you don't dawdle in there we can still get a full breakfast," she lightly lectured. The music festival's venues opened at 9:00, but the acts began at 10:30, so they had plenty of time to arrive there and get to their seats.
He nodded and went to get ready without further comment, ignoring the gibe. He'd only been 'dawdling' lately due to the need to practice at karaoke and he didn't have to do that anymore.
After once more eating at the Grand Club they went to the subway as usual. They took the same route as they had to Tokyo Disneyland, although this time they stayed on the Keiyo Line and rode it along the bay into Chiba, eventually getting off at Kaihin-Makuhari Station and making their way to Chiba Marine Stadium.
The Summer Sonic Festival was a bit odd in that it was held over two days in both Chiba and Osaka. Bands that played in one city one day would swap to the other on the next. There were three stages at each venue; an outdoor one that hosted big foreign bands, an indoor one that played smaller foreign acts, and a 'factory' stage that hosted domestic ones. That year's lineup was largely geared toward punk and rock, which was perfectly fine by Ichigo. They were there exclusively for the acts that played outdoors.
As they'd started off he'd texted Ishida to let him know everyone should take their time and get breakfast, not entirely sure what sort of schedule their friends and his family were keeping. Once again, as so often happened lately, something had begun percolating in the back of his mind as they'd shot past Tokyo Disneyland. He scratched at a temple in growing frustration as they walked before finally relenting to it. "How about after this we take everyone to Tokyo DisneySea?" he asked, sounding grumpy and agitated about it.
Rukia glanced at him with more than a little disbelief given his complaining about theme parks the other day and how he'd made fun of her for still wanting to go. She raised an eyebrow in mild irritation without comment, choosing to reserve judgment until he explained further.
"We did send that postcard from Tokyo Disneyland to Karin and Yuzu and everyone turned out here to see us so I guess we kind of owe them and should treat them," he muttered, frowning and rubbing at the back of his head. He still felt guilty about lying to his sisters, and to learn they'd known the whole time, that everyone had known, and they had all been trying to help him in their own ways . . .
She gave him a smirking smile, skewing it so it was heavily on the side of her face away from him and he couldn't see it fully. For as much as he tried to cultivate a certain kind of image he really could be sweet and thoughtful sometimes. "I suppose that given your weighty consideration in so freely handing out Soul Society's riches, such would be acceptable," she said tartly. He didn't have to know.
"I'm just trying to do something nice," he said a bit harshly in response.
"It's truly fascinating how much your attitude improves when you can do nice things with others peoples' money," Rukia replied primly, before looking away, not willing to take it further. In point of fact she rather strongly approved, and not for selfish reasons.
Ichigo grumbled to himself before pulling out his cell phone, dialing Ishida.
She listened to his side of the conversation idly.
"So, Rukia and I want to take you guys somewhere fun," he said neutrally, before listing off the stations and routes they needed to use and when to meet. He went silent for awhile after that. "Of course I'm not going to tell you what it is, you idiot! You've already proven yourself untrustworthy and it's a surprise!" he replied hotly. "We'll use our card," he added firmly after another moment. "Fine, we'll see you there," he finished.
"You sure have a way with words, Ichigo," she taunted.
"Not everybody is gifted at communication," he said flatly, looking away.
Her eyes widened a bit at what he might mean by that but she held her tongue and they continued on, gradually encountering more and more foot traffic as they got nearer to the stadium.
Chiba Marine Stadium was mostly used for baseball and they'd gotten tickets for stadium seating rather than the standing room area in the middle of the field, which was fortuitous as it would make it easier for them to depart. It was already quite full when they arrived and filled up completely as they waited. As it was a festival rather than a concert, the headline acts were actually the openers on both days to draw crowds in earlier in the hopes they'd stay and explore the different offerings.
Arriving only slightly fashionable late after the start time, Guns N' Roses came out on stage to applause, giving out greetings and starting to work the crowd to get them engaged. Despite the hour the audience was unusually into it. It was perhaps the composition of the crowd and also the context, as a show like this was one of the few times people could really open up and get raucous without causing a scene. Worrying about face didn't matter. They went back and forth for awhile, building one another up louder and louder, and Rukia was surprised that Ichigo was starting to get into it and allowed herself to join in even though she knew nothing about the music.
Finally some sort of line was crossed and guitar riffs started to thunder out across the venue. The unmistakable sound of "Welcome to the Jungle" began to a surging roar from the people assembled. Rukia was fascinated by the delivery as it was raw and frankly not that vocally attractive yet seemed to be all the more genuine and true for it. The crowd sang along and although she didn't know the lyrics to keep up she found herself carried away by the unrestrained energy on display.
From there the band cycled through "Nightrain," "Paradise City," "Mr. Brownstone," and "Knockin' On Heaven's Door." She felt the mood shift as the arc of the songs took them into slower and more moving material, the raw lyrical quality taking on a new and completely different meaning. She found herself staring at the stage as "November Rain" played, mouth a bit ajar at how it seemed to fit their own circumstances, the actual Ichigo beside her forgotten even as the idea of him went nowhere at all. She felt her throat catch as it seemed to touch something deep inside her.
The band lingered in the din of the crowd for awhile before starting what it soon became clear would be their last song for the set. The stadium roared with cheers and applause before hushing itself to listen as the chords of "Sweet Child O' Mine" started up. Rukia put the previous song behind her and followed along intently, the musical quality of the song making her wonder if it'd be more like the first few. As the singing began it immediately became apparent it wouldn't be, and as she listened to the words she suddenly realized Ichigo had been completely silent and still since the start of the previous song.
Her eyes went wide as the lyrics advanced and she remembered what he'd told her about the rain in his inner world, about when it had started and how she was the one who stopped it. After several stanzas she couldn't stop her eyes from leaving the stage and tracking over toward him, only to find he was already looking at her. His expression was unreadable. What was in his eyes was something that burned and for the briefest moment she thought it was anger and felt a flicker of fear at its intensity, which seemed to only make it flare brighter. She abruptly realized she'd never seen the emotion in him before and couldn't immediately place it. Or . . . had she? If she had it'd never been remotely so clear, so singular . . .
Their eyes only met for a second or two before Ichigo looked away decisively, turning his whole head. How could I forget that they'd inevitably play this song? He cringed as hard as he could to keep control of his face as things slammed shut inside him like blast doors containing a conflagration or watertight bulkheads on a sinking ship.
Rukia stared at him dumbly for long seconds as the singing continued before looking away as the lump in her throat instantly returned. She kept trying to place that look in her memory as her mind tried its very hardest not to think about what she'd actually just seen. It was when she realized she'd seen it countless times in different little ways and increasingly so lately, just never so raw, that her mental shields rose up.
Neither looked at the other another again. The song continued to fill the stadium, the lyrics hammering at the two of them, until finally it ended in an earthshaking tumult of noise from the audience. The band idled in the adulation gladly for awhile, and then they were gone. Something in Ichigo's head made him check his watch. It was 11:39 AM. That same something made him get up and leave.
She followed along without a single word.
They eventually arrived at station by the twinned Disney parks, waiting quietly beside one another and acting as if they were almost strangers. Each knew the other wasn't mad or anything like that, but they were once more at a loss as to how to engage with one another. Their friends and family arrived on the next train coming from the other direction and they abruptly put on the best happy looks they could to welcome them.
Something happened, Inoue felt from the moment she saw them. They were both trying really hard to act normal. It hadn't been a fight as their ire was extremely predictable—this was something else. She glanced to Yoruichi, who met the look for a second.
The Flash Goddess, in turn, looked to Renji, something unsaid passing between them.
"So what's the big surprise?" Ishida offered, trying to defray the feeling in the air. The tension between Ichigo and Rukia was so thick it was like they'd arrived into a fog bank.
"You're telling me you haven't figured it out already?" Ichigo replied with a smug grin that was a little too big, looking at his sisters.
They looked back in confusion, trying to mask their concern, before Yuzu's face suddenly lit up. "No way!" she exclaimed.
"Mmhmm," Rukia said leaning forward and smiling sweetly at the pair. She hadn't had the heart to continue teasing Ichigo earlier and definitely didn't have it in her to even try then.
Karin's expression suddenly softened as she caught up. Both girls ran up and hugged their adoptive sister.
Everyone else exchanged confused looks, not having really studied Tokyo's layout and not knowing the significance of where they were. Isshin caught up quickest, and looked at Ichigo with grudging but considered approval.
The raven-haired Shinigami laughed a little and hugged back as they thanked her, saying with more humility than usual "Don't thank me, it wasn't my idea." She added "We thought we'd take you to the other half and come back for the castle another time."
Both girls immediately turned to their brother who was looking askew and rubbing the back of his head awkwardly as if the whole thing was an imposition. "Anyway, let's get on with it," he declared before anything else could be said, starting to lead the way toward the ticketing booths for Tokyo DisneySea, which were in the opposite direction of where they'd gone the first time. Rukia half pulled and was half pulled by Karin and Yuzu after him and everyone else fell in behind them. The group in the back exchanged meaningful glances with one another, having already discussed Yoruichi's idea.
Rukia wound up paying for six junior tickets and five adult tickets. They made their way into the Mediterranean Harbor area that marked the start of the park and were scarcely inside when Ichigo suddenly found one of his arms locked in Renji's and the other in Chad's while Yoruichi and Inoue did the same to Rukia.
"H—Hey!" Ichigo protested, finding neither would quite look at him, "What's the big idea?!" He wasn't able to struggle much before suddenly Urahara and Ishida were pushing him along off to the left from the entrance. "Rukia!" he called out, turning his head back toward her.
She was likewise being dragged off to the right by Inoue and Yoruichi and looked to him, calling back "Ichigo!"
Their respective kidnappers told them to calm down but didn't let up one bit.
Isshin crouched down in front of Karin and Yuzu with an apologetic smile saying "We'll make sure he has fun, so do the same for Rukia-chan, yeah?"
Yuzu glared at him like it was unforgivable but Karin just sighed and turned, tugging her sister after her as she said "Come on, they look like they need help with Rukia-nē." Yuzu grudgingly went and they parted company, Isshin likewise going to catch up with the men.
The men didn't stop until they'd pulled Ichigo all the way to the American Waterfront, reasoning they could always return to Mediterranean Harbor later. Ichigo had grown quiet both to avoid making a scene and because he had some vague idea what was happening, but he wasn't happy about it. When at last they let him go he pushed away from them a heavy shrug, grousing with a spark of anger "That's no way to handle people who were treating you to a day out, you know!"
"Don't complain so much, it's unseemly," Isshin chastised.
"Technically, neither of you are actually the ones treating us to anything," Urahara corrected.
"Just think of it as being nautically appropriate," Ishida added, "you've been press-ganged."
"We're not doing it for you; we're doing it for Rukia. She must be going crazy after spending weeks cooped up with you," Renji said a little harshly, willing to play the bad cop.
"You need time on your own," Chad said simply.
Ichigo's eyes widened at what almost sounded like a callback to the performance of "November Rain" at the festival. He narrowed them back down again before looking away as there was no way it actually was. All he said was "Yeah," rather quietly.
He wasn't prepared for Renji suddenly putting him a headlock as he declared "Unfortunately this place looks rather family-friendly so we can't drink away your problems just yet, but we'll just attend to that later! If you act depressed the whole time though we're gonna find some quiet corner to beat you up in!" It wasn't an idle threat.
The would-be substitute shoved the crimson-haired Shinigami away, snarling "Like it'd be that easy!"
"That's the spirit," Isshin said with a broad smile. Ishida, Chad, and Urahara gave similar looks.
The ladies hauled Rukia comparatively less far, dragging her deep into one half of Mediterranean Harbor. Yuzu and Karin had joined in to push her along and she'd likewise stopped actively resisting, remembering her training and bearing her humiliation with grace. She felt she knew what this was all about and it'd clearly been pre-planned even before they'd decided on going to the park. When she was released she crossed her arms and let out a huff, proclaiming "You could have just asked me to come along!"
"Would you really have agreed?" Yuzu replied quietly, looking at her with an expression that said she already knew the answer was no even if she didn't like doing this.
"Arrr matey, just pretend we're pirates and you be our plunderrr!" Inoue said with a raised fist, already getting rather too into the swashbuckling role she had imagined for herself.
"It's pretty clear Ichigo's going nuts from being stuck alone with you for so long, so we thought we'd give him a reprieve," Yoruichi said like she was bored, also willing to play the bad cop.
"You needed time alone from Ichi-nii," Karin said without any tone.
Rukia likewise reacted viscerally to what seemed like a callback to the music festival, giving a surprised expression before turning her back on the others, hugging herself tighter as she whispered "I guess so." She blinked as she suddenly felt Karin and Yuzu hugging onto either side of her before what must have been Yoruichi was doing the same from behind, which was rather shocking all by itself.
Suddenly Inoue was smiling at her with her hands on her shoulders, squeezing reassuringly, before hugging her too as the other three let go. "It's just for one day, Kuchiki-san," she said, leaving the rest unsaid before standing back up.
The petite Shinigami stared at the two girls, the teenager, and the woman before letting out a sigh and smiling weakly.
The two groups orbited through the park in ways that kept them separated from one another both in terms of proximity and line of sight, both parties relying on reiatsu to do so. Rukia noticed it early on but didn't say anything about it while Ichigo couldn't tell but guessed it was happening from the occasional odd course corrections they made. There were a surprising number of fun rides, including the Tower of Terror, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and even a small but decent roller coaster named Flounder's Flying Fish Coaster. Both groups spent a lot of time on the boats that transited between the various 'ports of call' that made up the park as there was something rather charming about them. They had lunch and light dinners as they went.
Ichigo did wind up having fun, particularly at Renji's overreactions to some of the rides they wound up on. Rukia was swept up in Karin and Yuzu's excitement as well as Inoue's. The reactions of all three thoroughly mimicked her prior feelings in the other half of the park.
After sundown the boys and girls wound up opposite one another in the Mediterranean Harbor, separated by the small bay that cut into it. The lights all about the shore grew dim before odd blue lights came on and a mist began to drift up from the water while ethereal music played.
Renji looked about uncertainly, still unnerved by the Tower of Terror. He leaned over to Ishida and whispered "This is just a show, right?"
Ishida pushed his glasses up and glanced to Ichigo before looking across the bay to where he knew Rukia and the others were. "Yes, and certainly not one that will bother you," he said quietly.
A battle horn trumpeted before the lights brightened and the music swelled. Mickey Mouse swept into the lagoon on a brightly lit boat, waving a trident about as he welcomed them all to a world of magic. After his departure a story was narrated to them of how once upon a time a water spirit and a fire spirit, Bellisea and Prometeo, had lived there in adjacent but separate worlds, and how one day they had met.
The next several minutes were given over to each spirit in turn, the elegant woman Bellisea's focusing on the water and the phoenix Prometeo's starting with a pyrotechnics display from the volcano at the center of the Mysterious Island, Mount Prometheus. Then the two were opposite one another upon the surface of the water and the former began to sing, drawing nearer to the latter who soon replied in song as well. The pair harmonized as they drew nearer before taking on aspects of each other in what was clearly a metaphor for falling in love.
Isshin felt something stir in his chest at the show and let it play out rather than suppressing it for a time. The metaphor was a bit off, but close enough . . . Eventually he glanced sideways to Ichigo, finding he wasn't watching the show but was staring longingly right at where the ladies' group was standing. He didn't have any spiritual perception and yet . . . was it just natural instinct? Was she doing the same? That look on his face . . . Mmm, well, you'd be looking at her just as lost if she was here, wouldn't you? I'd know.
Rukia knew exactly where the men were but it didn't help keep her from staring in their direction. She swore that if she focused enough she sensed the very slightest flame of his reiatsu there among them. Ichigo . . . are you also . . . ? All the girls stole surreptitious glimpses of her but she was completely oblivious to it.
Yoruichi looked away and sighed slightly. How Rukia felt was written all over her face; it was starting to make her feel bad for splitting them up even just for an evening. You're really that smitten with him, hmm? As the show continued on through its final act her thoughts turned and finally she looked meaningfully to Inoue. The teenager met her gaze after a few seconds and she looked to Karin, Yuzu, and across the bay.
Inoue blinked before catching her meaning and nodding, taking the twins by the wrists and sweetly saying "Hey, why don't we go meet up with everyone else?"
"But . . ." Yuzu began, prompting the princess to smile more broadly.
Karin wordlessly started to pull Inoue and her sister along, figuring it all out.
Yoruichi watched them leave before looking to Rukia, finding she hadn't noticed. She placed a hand on the petite Shinigami's shoulders, startling her mildly, before gently turning her toward the park entrance and walking her off. It wouldn't do to keep them separate for too much longer.
Ishida, Chad, Urahara, and Isshin likewise peeled away, leaving Ichigo with Renji. The 6th Division fukutaichō waited a bit with the future substitute, leaving at a staggered interval so the groups wouldn't run into each other.
Both Ichigo and Rukia could guess what was coming.
A/N: I later discovered this isn't actually an accurate set list for what Guns N' Roses played at Summer Sonic 2002, either in order or content, but interestingly they did play all the songs mentioned (and more) so I'll call it close enough.
BraviSEAmo! actually opened on July 17, 2004, replacing DisneySea Symphony, but the latter was far less impressive and less thematically appropriate, so.