Chapter 6
It had been an exhausting day. But Byakuya still paced his room. He was thinking about R, the way she had looked, how calm she had been at being refused passage to return to wherever she came from. Her casually interrupting him and opting to exclude honorifics when addressing him. There was a general unease in his throat when he pictured her. He had expected that a ryoka human would have a higher level of reiatsu, perhaps like that girl Orihime. But he hadn't expected a thread of something else in R's reiatsu. It was strong, but it was unlike human reiatsu. Although not dense like Kurosaki's, it certainly was not normal. In any case, people from the WOL were bad news for Shinigami when it came to interaction. He had seen enough from Kurosaki Ichigo. Although Byakuya had chosen to remain silent about Kurosaki's hollowing out in their fight, it disturbed him greatly that Kurosaki had that evil in him. Even more so that Rukia was close friends with him and would not think twice about lending him her assistance in anything. Byakuya felt that Kurosaki was unworthy of such privilege.
He took a deep breath and looked out of his office window. He would need to visit his sister tomorrow. Rukia was resting in the Kuchiki mansion, but because he had this ryoka woman to babysit, he could not return home anytime soon. He was not fully healed himself. He did not believe her story about the television. Maybe it could've happened, but even if it did, he could not believe that his world was fiction in hers. It transcended everything he had learnt and believed in.
They did not need this complication right now. Sou taicho had declared a war in winter, but Byakuya did not believe Aizen would sit around so long, waiting for action. If he had known all this time about Urahara's hogyouku, what was to keep him from creating one himself? And if he had, would he still need all that time for it to awaken? Byakuya had heard about Aizen's skipping the chant for Kurohitsugi, and it was Hado level 90. Clearly, Gotei 13 had been fooled about their awareness of his strength. The Shinigami would do much better to start preparing immediately for war.
Byakuya blew out his lantern and lay on his mattress, trying to get some sleep.
….
"Here. It's for you." Renji held out Rukia's favourite juice carton to her. He had asked one of the Shinigami returning from the world of living to get him one, after hearing her talk about it to Hanatarou one day.
"Renji! That's, um, nice of you, but I don't know if I can consume this in my soul form." Rukia smiled awkwardly at him.
"If you can't drink it then stare at it while you remember WOL, I don't know, just take it!" Renji's voice rose as he blushed.
"O-Oh. Okay. Thank you, Renji." Rukia took the carton from him and looked at it, smiling. Renji, watching her smile, wondered what kind of memories she recalled, looking at that dubious little thing.
This was not how he had imagined welcoming her from her mission in WOL. Try as he might, he could not stop beating himself up about going there to capture her, hurting her even as she was helpless, powerless. Maybe he had redeemed himself in her eyes, rescuing her from her execution and most importantly teaming up with Ichigo, who, he could see, meant a lot to her. But in his own heart, he could not forgive himself for how he had acted. He had meant to do this every day since Rukia had gotten nearly killed, but could never bring himself to.
"R-Rukia." Rukia looked at him "I know you probably don't want to hear this, but I… I am sorry. I should have trusted you, as a friend, and believed that you did not commit a crime. Perhaps if I had stood up for you, Kuchiki taichou might have… maybe he might have—"
"Renji, it's all good." Rukia interrupted him, staring at him with her piercing midnight blue eyes. "I would expect that from you. You are the lieutenant of the 6th squad, and anyone working under nii-sama would be duty bound to do what you did. In a way I'm proud to see that you didn't want to bend the rules just because it was me. And the orders came from the supposed Central 46. There was really no way you could have done anything."
But he did. Ichigo did. He had crossed worlds for her and fought against the man who had cut his soul chain in one slash. Renji looked down at his knees. "I could have petitioned, and garnered support from the other captains—"
"It doesn't matter anymore." Rukia said in a firmer voice. "Renji, look at me." He looked up at her, and saw that her eyes were intense, tearing up a little. "You saved my life. You refused to let me go even when you were getting stabbed. You fought nii-sama till it almost killed you. I don't think those are simple things, Renji. If I can say that I have a friend I can trust my life with, it's you. And in the end, that's all that matters. That you are still here."
They sat there staring at each other till Renji started to blush. "Ano. Aren't you going to drink that thing?" He asked her.
"I told you, I'm in soul form."
"That's quite stupid, your digestive system is working fine."
"Shut up, you idiot. If you are dying to taste it, all you need to do is tell me."
"Hah! Me, dying to taste that suspicious looking thing? You've gone all weird, after returning from the WOL."
"Someone with a starfish hairline does not get to say that to me!"
"What? You have no sense of style!"
"And you have no sense at all!"
They stared at each other and then each laughed, looking at the other's face reddened with annoyance.
"Actually you're now so red I can't tell where your face ends and hair begins," Rukia snorted.
"Teme…."
"Joke, joke. Look carefully, this is how you open this drink." She meticulously drew the straw out of its plastic and poked it in the carton. Offering it to Renji first, she smiled.
Renji grinned back at her and recalled all the times Rukia had prevented fights in their neighbourhood as a kid just by sharing and teaching others to share. In any case, her heart was big, and he knew she was generous with her trust, her friendship. That was why he would always be important to her. And hence he would keep fighting to protect her.
He accepted the drink, pleasantly surprised by its taste of peaches. They talked some more, after which Renji left the mansion so Rukia could rest. He went to his quarters feeling, finally, healed.
AN: teme: you (slightly disrespectful)
