A Small Defense
Prologue
May, 2001
"What were you thinking!" Isshin asked his old friend, in shock.
"I'm sorry, Isshin, but the opportunity presented itself and I couldn't pass it up."
"I'm not talking about the hogyoku, Kisuke! I get that -believe me- I feel bad using the poor girl, but I understand why. But this -this is going too far, Kisuke! What possessed you to do this?"
"I already told you; the opportunity presented itself." Kisuke replied.
"The opportunity for what, Kisuke? This better not be part of some experiment, because that is a line that I will not let you cross."
"No need to worry about that, Isshin; it was simply a matter of buying time."
"Buying time for what? I thought the gigai would take care of everything."
"It should but it needs time, and we shouldn't underestimate our enemy. There's always a possibility that she could be found before her soul is done bonding to the gigai, and if that were to happen, they wouldn't hesitate to take her and the hogyoku -but with this. . ."
"They'd have to pause." Isshin said with a sigh as he realized the logic behind his friend's insane actions.
"Exactly. Whether they try to manipulate the law or do it themselves, they'll have to hesitate, and that should give us all the time we need to get her back."
Isshin sighed, yet again, as he thought about Kisuke's twisted and underhanded tactics.
"And what if they never find her? You already changed her life by putting her in that gigai, but this is on a whole other level -and all as a precaution for something that may never happen!"
"Her life changed the moment she chose to give your son her powers! She knew that the consequence for her actions would be death if the Soul Society ever found out, but she did it anyways. If anything, I saved her life."
Isshin scoffed.
"Don't try acting like you're a selfless hero. I get why you did it -I do -and yes, you may have saved her life, but you still took advantage of her. . . and then you did this. As the father of two daughters, I can't help but feel pissed -especially if the reason you did it turns out to be nothing but paranoia."
Kisuke sighed as he thought about Isshin's words. When he thought about if Ururu was in Rukia's situation, he found himself understanding Isshin's feelings on the matter a little better, but he still felt that he had made the right choice.
"I understand that, Isshin, and it's entirely possible that they'll never find her -in fact I hope they never do- but no matter what, the life she knew is gone and she'll have to adjust to life in this world. I don't know much about her life in the Soul Society, I don't know what she's leaving behind, but maybe this will give her an anchor to this world and make it easier for her to stay."
"We can only hope." Isshin agreed. "Who is she anyway? Do I know her? Because that could make things tricky."
"Eh, possibly. She told me that she'd been a soul reaper for forty-nine years. She's been in squad thirteen the whole time, though, and she's not a seated officer so I'm not sure how often your paths would have crossed. . . although her brother is a captain."
"Her brother?" Isshin asked as he thought of the few captains he had known with sisters.
Realization dawned on him as he quickly put the pieces together.
"You don't mean Kuchiki, do you?"
"You figured that out fast, I suppose you know her then?"
"Not very well, she was close to my cousin but I only met her a few times and we didn't speak much."
"Do you think she'll figure it out?"
"Ichigo is the spitting image of Kaien, and she seems to think it's a coincidence. As long as I keep up the 'clueless dad act' she'll probably continue thinking that she just ended up with a family that resembles the Shibas."
"Well that's one less thing to worry about -although I have to ask, how worried should we be about Byakuya Kuchiki?"
Isshin groaned.
"I hate to say it, but he makes your concerns valid. He hides it well, but Byakuya really does care about his sister and is very protective of her. The only reason she's not a seated officer is because he requested that her name be removed from the list of candidates. He won't let her slip away so easily."
"So does this mean you're not angry at me anymore?"
Isshin sighed.
"I wish that you'd at least consulted me before you did it. Did you even think about the effect that this will have on my family?"
"Look, Isshin, I know that this is going to be a lot for your family to handle -and I know that I'm responsible for this- so I'm willing to help in any way you need. The store actually does pretty well, despite appearances, so if you need anything-"
"-Keep your money, I can take care of my family, just fine." Isshin said before smiling a bit. "Honestly, I'm kind of excited that my family is growing -even if I'm not a fan of how it happened. Besides, from everything I know about Rukia, she's a sweet girl -even if she is a bit of loner- I have a feeling she and Ichigo might be good for each other."
His grin grew wide and mischievous.
"And since I'm playing the role of the clueless father, I'll get to have fun messing with Ichigo when he finally tells me."
As stated on my profile, this is my account for goofing off. These will be the stories that I don't put much effort into; meaning that I won't be doing as much research and editing. It's honestly really weird for me to have written a fanfiction without properly studying a characters speech patterns and mannerisms, but I don't have the time to do that for all my different fanfictions, so I had to make this account to separate them.
Even though I'm not putting much effort into these stories, reviews and critiques are still very much welcomed.
~Luna Marie Whelan