Interlude
"Kai-nii, where's Daddy?"
Her dark-haired "brother" chuckled, flicking Ryohime's nose affectionately.
"He's just taking care of some Hollow stuff and going to visit an old friend. Don't worry, Hime-chan, he'll be back. In the meantime, I'm taking care of you." He pulled a board game from the shelf and settled down on the floor. "I still have to settle our score for your cheating win last time."
Ryohime giggled, reaching for her favorite piece. "It wasn't cheating, Kai-nii, Daddy was on my team."
"Well, however you excuse it, it's just you and me playing this time, and I fully intend to annihilate you."
They were halfway into their game when there was a knock at the door. Kai handed Ryohime a picture book to keep her occupied for a few minutes and stood to get it.
He opened the door and his eyes brightened at the sight of a familiar, purple-eyed girl standing on their porch.
"Nee-san!" he exclaimed, ready to bury her in a hug, and instead got a palm in his face, knocking him backwards onto the floor.
"Good to see you again, Kai," Rukia said, stepping into the house and peering at him. "You're still making good use of the gigai we got you, I trust?"
"Every time I collapse exhausted into my bed at night, I think of you," Kai said, though the hands he was using to hold his nose muffled his words. "Am I bleeding…?"
"So, where's Ichigo?" Rukia asked, ignoring his question. Kai sighed as he sat up, looking sideways at her in disappointment.
"Really, Nee-san, you're being unkind. I'm never left in charge of Hime-chan unless Ichigo's out, and you know that. The rest of the time I'm trying to ponder why, why I was destined for this thankless, arduous human life style…"
"Because Soul Society says so," Rukia cut in bluntly, then smiled brightly as Ryohime came dashing into the hall.
"I knew it was you, Rukia-obasan!" the young Kurosaki said happily, reaching up with both arms. Rukia complied, sweeping her into a hug.
"Life is so unfair," Kai grumbled from his place on the floor, then sighed and stood up. "Can I make you a cup of tea, Nee-san? Ichigo should be back late tonight, sometime after midnight, so if you wanted to wait…"
Rukia hesitated, then nodded. "Alright, thank you, Kai." She proceeded to begin chatting with Ryohime, heading for the living room like she owned the house. Kai stood for a second longer in the hall, then heaved a second, silent sigh and began walking towards the kitchen.
.
The two "adults" were sitting in the kitchen, enjoying more of Kai's tea and talking while they waited for Ichigo to get home. Ryohime was in bed and sleeping, worn out from her evening playing with Rukia, and Kai was more then ready to spend some time catching up with said Kuchiki.
"So, how are things in Soul Society of late?" asked Kai, twirling a spoon in his fingers for no real reason. Rukia sighed.
"Well, Urahara Taichou is finally getting things calmed down again in the Twelfth Division. After Kurotsuchi's banishment, they've been having trouble adjusting."
Kai's eyes widened. "Wait, I haven't heard anything about this!"
Rukia sighed. "Long story short, he went fiddling with the weird stuff he confiscated from the Eighth Espada's 'secret lab', nearly killed himself and half of Seireitei in the process. The Sotaichou finally decided he was too dangerous to stay, but the whole incident made a ton of paperwork for everyone else. Especially with the sudden rampage of Hollow chickens in Seireitei…"
Kai choked on his tea and began coughing violently. "Hollow chickens?" he gasped when he had regained some fraction of his composure, and Rukia nodded wearily.
"Hollow chickens. It seems our deceased friend Szayelaporro had a fondness for the creatures. He had captured about a hundred of them, experimented on them, then trapped them in a box of infinite space. Mayuri opened the box and let all the chickens out, leaving them to rampage around Seireitei, getting into everything and exploding whenever anyone got too close. Poor Hanataro has been having an especially bad time… I had no idea he was so scared of poultry."
"Who was this guy?" asked Kai incredulously. "What sort of Espada would waste his time on something so pointless as chicken collecting?"
"I don't know, but another of his experiments-in-progress almost destroyed the Shino Academy. That's one reason I'm here, actually. Things are absurdly hectic in Seireitei right now, and Kyoraku asked me to tell Ichigo that his visit has to be postponed until things settle down a little. Things are still exploding for no good reason, not the sort of environment he would want to bring Ryohime in to."
"I agree with you there…" sighed Kai. "That's one of the reasons… what're the others?"
Rukia looked away, blushing just slightly. "The others are none of your business, Kai."
Kai looked at her suspiciously, but said nothing as he stood to pour some more hot water into his cup. He always reused tea bags, despite the fact Ichigo always had plenty for him to use.
"Anyway, how's the job?" asked Rukia, trying to change the subject. It worked, Kai instantly jumped on the chance to complain.
"That human boss of mine is being an unreasonable jerk, that's how it's going. Just because I am faster then the majority of ordinary humans doesn't mean he has to take advantage of it! In fact, I don't even know how he found out. I was being very careful, but then he began cutting minutes off my delivery times, and he won't even pay me the full amount because he says I'm not working as long as everyone else! Honestly, Nee-san, couldn't you have found me a job that wasn't run by the most stingy human on the face of the planet?"
"I didn't chose the job, you did," Rukia reminded him, and he glared at her.
"But you were the ones who made me get a job, and besides, the other two options were even worse," Kai whined. "Hasn't my contribution to the welfare of Karakura been enough that Soul Society let me retire in peace? Hang out with Hime-chan when Ichigo needs me to and live in the lap of luxury…?" He had gotten that dreamy eyed look he sometimes got, and Rukia wondered if "Luxury" was his code name for some girl he had fallen for. Whatever it was, she felt it high time he snapped out of it, so she hooked her leg around one of the legs of his chair and yanked, spilling him sideways onto the floor again.
He popped up again with an Ichigo-like scowl. "I'd really thought you had grown out of that kind of behavior by now, but I guess I was wrong," he said with fake bitterness. "How can that brother of yours stand you?"
"Nii-sama is a noble and handsome man who I would never even consider hitting," Rukia said proudly. "You, on the other hand, are a lowly mod-soul that Ichigo wants to hang around so he has someone to look after his daughter while he's Hollow hunting. If you would prefer, however, I'm sure we can work something out to have… have… what's the name of your alias? Koy… Kit…"
"Shishi Kon," said Kai grumpily. "Dumb name. Thanks a lot for that, by the way."
Rukia grinned in fond remembrance of the night they came up with that one. Renji, Ichigo, and herself in a room, laughing as Kai protested loudly at every name they came up with. "We could always kill off Shishi-san and you can go back to your nice, quiet life as a small green marble in Ichigo's sock drawer," she finished, and Kai scowled at her.
"You're a horrible person."
.
Across town, Ichigo jumped down from the roof he had been perched on. His scowl was more pronounced then usual as he approached the abandoned house, and the child that had been abandoned there.
How could anyone do something so selfish? So cruel?
He walked across the dark, overgrown lawn towards the curled up, sleeping boy, wondering why anyone would raise a child for so long… four, five years maybe, before now leaving him to die. He could barely comprehend it.
He knelt by the child's side, pondering for a minute before sliding both hands under the boy's body and carefully lifting him in the same way he did Ryohime. Even in his sleep, the boy reacted, his small arms circling Ichigo's neck.
This is just wrong…
"He's not your responsibility."
Ichigo started, surprised someone had been able to sneak up on him without him being able to detect their reiatsu, surprised he had even been spotted. He looked around, and finally spotted the figure he assumed had spoken by the edge of the house.
"He was abandoned, responsibility seems to have been ignored in his case," he replied quietly, not wanting to wake the boy.
"He's mine, actually," came the response. "He wasn't abandoned, he was relocated. Put him down, Shinigami."
Ichigo wasn't too surprised, if he could be seen in his Shinigami form, it wasn't much of a stretch for him to be recognized as such.
"And who are you to look after him?" he asked. "This is a rather shady way of doing things, don't you think?"
"So keep an eye on us, if you want," the stranger said, her tone cold. "But this boy is none of your business. Put him down."
Ichigo almost didn't do it, his instincts telling him that it wasn't the right thing to do, but he also knew that this was the World of the Living. Things weren't as simple here as they were in Hueco Mundo, or even Soul Society, where he could just fight the unfairness head on. Here he could be arrested for child kidnapping, and he couldn't let Ryohime grow up with her father in jail. So he reluctantly lowered the boy back into the grass, scowl deepening even further.
"Walk away, Shinigami. None of this has anything to do with you."
And Ichigo walked away, hands clenched into fists at his sides and his teeth gritting together in frustration.
In the yard behind him, the black-haired boy's fingers curled into his palm, missing the comforting feeling of a warm neck under his skin.
