Undertones
By: WhisperedSilvers
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I've been trying for hours to weigh the possibilities
For you and me
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drink of stars
If there was one thing Rukia hated, it was standing on the sidelines while her fellow colleagues—friends fought for her.
She hated it.
She felt so useless.
Rukia had prided herself in having the ability to take care of herself. She's been doing it for as long as she could remember, since she was in the Rukon district, searching for food, for clothing, for warmth, for shelter—for survival. She did what she had to do to survive.
As a shinigami, things were different.
She was of a noble clan, now.
Her responsibilities varied from being on the Thirteen Court Guard Squad to playing the role of Byakuya Kuchiki's younger sister, second in line for the Head. She was stuck in between wanting to help—to move, to do something – even though her reiatsu was shot – because standing around spectating was just unthinkable. Fingers twitching against her unsealed zanpakuto, she glanced over at the Captains who were beginning to size up the zenpo.
"Reap: Kazeshini," Shuhei unsealed his zanpakuto, using shunpo, he leaped into the air and swung.
It was the catalyst that led to an outright brawl with the newly improved zenpo, granted, even though the zenpo had the height of a menos, it still was able to hide their presence and now, these menos, can use shunpo.
Rukia's fingernails bit into her palms as she watched Soifon slam her fists into the red mask of the zenpo, using the weight of her body, she flickered to the left and threw two blades at the zenpo that were ripping into the sky.
"Rukia," Hitsugaya spoke, teal orbs latched onto her small form, and he narrowed his eyes, "Do not get involved."
Her lips thinned.
"You are his objective," the words he relayed, physically made him want to wretch in disgust, he could not believe this was happening again, and he unsheathed his zanpakuto, "Stay behind me."
"I'll stay out of the way," Rukia accepted, her eyebrows furrowed and she looked at her brother, "Nii-sama?"
Byakuya did not particularly like where this was going. Captain Hitsugaya looked over at him with sea-ice orbs and held a determined stance. There was a certain look in his eyes that made him hesitate. Hinamori – he flickered his eyes over to the brunette – who looked out the window from the inside of the building, should've been his first priority, however—Byakuya frowned, Hitsugaya was putting his sister first.
The Kuchiki head had more pressing things to attend to, his uncle for one, was becoming more and more of a headache. He nodded more to himself than to his sister, "I will deal with our uncle, Rukia," he narrowed charcoal flint to the white-haired ice user, "I leave her in your care, Hitsugaya."
Do not be callous.
It was left unsaid, but the words still hung heavy in the air – and she trusts him with everything – but for her Nii-sama to leave her, his sister, with someone other than him, that was significant on its own.
Ikkaku took his zanpakuto out and marched towards the left.
It wasn't hard to divide the zenpo into sections, but it was hard to coordinate the Thirteen Court Guard Squad with each other. Despite not having a battle plan, some zanpakutos canceled each other out, which made the organization difficult. But, like most shinigami, people within the same age range and squad stuck together.
It was the same for Lieutenant Matsumoto and Captain Hitsugaya.
Hitsugaya leaped into the air, his trail blazing with reiatsu and unsheathed his zanpakuto, "Sit upon the Frosted Heavens: Hyorinmaru!"
Ice poured like a whip in the air, crackling a fine sheen of snow and wind against the menos. It crackled like lightning and snapped against the zenpo with a smack. It sliced the zenpo's arm clean off, but then it regenerated with bone and ash.
"You have to strike it," Rukia instructed lamely from the side, she wanted to be useful and mimicked a line down her sternum, "Straight at the chest."
Matsumoto swung Haineko into the red dome and Hitsugaya struck the chest—shattering the zenpo like glass.
Hisagi, Ikkaku, Yumichika and her were the only people that the actual experience and understanding of how the zenpo worked. That included destruction and ability analysis. Yumichika and Ikkaku led two sections of assault, where random members of shinigami followed. A dizzying pattern of shunpo covered the air, but zenpo were shattering one by one and Hisagi—he used Kazeshini to round up other zenpo, pushing them into the path of destruction.
Rukia's main concern was her brother.
Yet, it was a topic she couldn't focus on. Her main concern had to be, not getting squashed by a zenpo or incinerated by a cero. Her feet brushed the edge of the stone bench, she jumped onto the marble and then leaped into the trees to get a better vantage point. She was practically useless at this point, the only thing she could do was stay out of the way.
Gritting her teeth, she pulled back. Almost disappearing into the background, hidden in the shadows, melting in candlewood, she tried to keep herself calm – the suddenness and stealth-ness of her moves made something in the zenpo shift.
Her stomach knotted.
She was out of sight and should be out of mind as well, but that was just the thing. Out of sight, meant their objective was out of sight – it became prioritized.
Now the zenpo were hunting her.
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Running from my heart
Hate to go so soon
This has to be the end
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"Fuck, fuck—fuck," Rukia swore violently, as she stumbled throughout the forested area of the barracks. Unlike the outside of the capital, the insides were mostly infrastructure and buildings, to find a vantage point, grass for one was something short of impossible.
In the back of her brain, she thought of minimizing the damage of the capital – which in retrospect wasn't very important – but, somehow, she couldn't help but feel this was all her fault.
The zenpo roared and snarled, it was getting closer; louder. She didn't know where she was running, but she ran and ran until she was sure she couldn't hear them anymore. She was afraid to look up and see her brother battling their uncle. She was tired of being targeted.
A ceros, red like blood, struck at her towards the left, shinigami following the army as it swerved into her direction – part of her felt relieved at the fact that no matter how much she ran, there was someone there to buy her some more time – the other part of her, was disgusted at such a display of dependency.
It was so human.
"Jump, Rukia!" Matsumoto's voice was loud and clear underneath the groaning of the zenpo.
The little Kuchiki followed her instructions blindly, she leaped into the air and dodged a cero. It was a harsh blast, her knees wobbled from the echoing split of earth and she breathed haggardly.
The instability of her spiritual pressure contributed to her exhaustive and exasperated state. She felt like something – something inside her was cracking, shattering when a cero was thrown at her, or an arm of the zenpo slammed in front of her.
But just as she was about to reach the gates of the capital – there was a white flash of lightning.
It was bright and twice as dangerous because it flickered. Twice.
Alive. Like a heartbeat, it flickered and her feet rooted themselves into the ground. The energy – reiatsu it hummed and vibrated in the air like something tangible, yet, something about it was familiar.
Rukia furrowed her brows and stared.
The reiatsu, it wasn't blinding, but comforting and she could almost taste—
A blade, sharp like ice, but rough and hard like the hands that wielded it, jabbed her in the chest. Right down the line of the sternum and she could hardly breathe with the way the metal touched her blood.
It didn't hurt.
It felt, invigorating, like snow in Tokyo.
She lifted her head up.
Violet orbs widened, her reiatsu thrummed, Sode no Shirayuki poured into her, wrapping her in silk ribbons and she smiled at the irony of it all, "Ichigo."
Ichigo, with hair brighter than the sun, grinned, "Rukia."
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This uncertainty is so frustrating
I be up and like I'm waiting
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Hitsugaya slammed Hyorinmaru into another zenpo, a clean cut down the spine of the hollow and Renji tightened the chokehold on another for him to swipe at. His forehead marred with a frown, it was getting ridiculous, he thought. They just kept coming, appearing from the rips in the sky and swallowing the earth with its heavy feet.
Koga – Kuchiki's uncle – was taking his time with his discombobulated zanpakuto. Swinging with reishi, reishi pure as snow and it hummed like metal creaking beneath copper. Opening his mouth, he blew a blizzard into the sky and shards – like daggers – poured down, cracking the ground like splinters and penetrated the zenpos with very little difficulty.
"Captain!" Matsumoto called out, she flash-stepped to the left of him, "They're opening kumons from the ground now!"
Teal orbs blazed.
There were too many things happening at the same time. The sky was hell-red and the earth began to split like hell was at their doorsteps and all Hitsugaya could think of is— where's Rukia?
Because he couldn't feel her.
Just then, the soil split beneath his feet. A zenpo appeared before him, a cero already spewing from his mouth, cutting the foliage and knocking buildings into rubble. Maybe it was him or maybe it was because his mind torn into two places at once, but he didn't move as fast as he thought he did.
The zenpo slashed him right across his shoulder.
"—late!" A little boy with blue eyes—his blue eyes glared at him, he pouted, a dimple twitching on the left side of his face, "Mommy said you were supposed to be here at five and it's eight!"
Toushiro's lips twitched upwards and lifted the plastic bag into his line of vision, "But I had to go all the way to the Land of the Living to get this."
The little boy gasped, "Is it ice cream?"
"Lemon ice cream and strawberry marshmallows," he nodded gravely, but his eyes twinkled all the same and crouched down until he was the same height as the child, "Am I forgiven?"
The child pouted and then sighed, "Do you promise not to do it again?"
Toushiro nodded solemnly, "Cross my heart."
He brightened, "Okay. But Daddy, do you think you can get chocolate ice cream next time? I think they put mint in it too!"
He silently cursed Renji for spoiling his son.
Hitsugaya's eyes widened.
Daddy?
It didn't take a genius to put two and two together and immediately come up with four. These were the flashes that Rukia had talked about, those of the future – it had to be the future because as of now, he was not a father – they were muddled like those film caps he's seen Matsumoto bring.
"You're late," Rukia frowned at him. Her hair cropped, just underneath her chin, her cheekbones were higher, more defined, but her eyes were still violet and jewel-like. She crossed her arms under her chest, her white captain's haori —! crunched underneath her elbows.
"You were particularly grouchy this morning," Toushiro raised an eyebrow, he lifted up the bag to pull out a frozen container, "This ice cream is getting harder and harder to find. That Quincy had to use some 'search engine' to find it," he paused, "At least that's what he told me."
She grabbed the container and smiled brightly, "All is forgiven."
Hitsugaya rolled over to the side and the zenpo halted. It paused in its steps and then it shattered into glass. Koga screamed in frustration and disappeared into Hueco Mundo.
He rolled his eyes and dropped a kiss to her jawline, "Kei-chan wants to go to Kyoko's tonight."
Rukia nodded and leaned into him, "Alright, but remember your uncle's birthday is tomorrow. So we can't stay too late."
Kei bobbed his head, "Can we get the yakitori, Mom?"
His hand, slowly, moved to touch his wounded shoulder, reiatsu humming, and the tension in his muscles pulled taut. His voice was velvet, deep and deliberate, "How…interesting."
Hitsugaya turned his head to see the substitute shinigami embed his zanpakuto into Rukia's chest.
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Maybe we could be perfect
Maybe I was forsaken
Maybe its really worth it
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End of Arc One
footnote1: so, this chapter was really hard to write because I wanted to make it the typical length I usually write for this fic. I didn't know how to drag it out and make it seem important without filling it in? But this is really a wrap up of the first arc, so it's much shorter than what it usually is.
footnote2: and for those who guessed it…YES! Hitsugaya saw the flash. I had planned this scene for so long. Also unedited.
footnote3: also, I'm going to try and wrap this fic up by the summer. We have only ten more chapters left until this fic is over, bless. Idk when, but I will finish it!
footnote4: also, I got fanart. Guys fanart! I teared a little. Thank you to the artist that created it!
songs used: far side of the moon – Tinashe.
please drop a review on your way out.