"-jiji" is a suffix usually used to denote an old man.
This fic is rated R because of language, violence, and sensuality. If any of the aforementioned offends you, please do not read.
Review if you like. No flames, please.
kaerichi
Chapter 2
While the only source of light in her apartment came from candles situated about the room, Rukia never minded the poor lighting – and indeed, she never paid for electricity. Her eyes could see well enough in complete darkness.
She went around with a lighter, as she always did, lighting them one by one, drawing the curtains closed. It was time for her to sleep. The candles flickered in the darkness, creating the illusion of shadow and its movement, as she watched the flames from her large bed.
Her phone was lit up.
Cursing, Rukia got to her feet again to go and retrieve her mobile phone, resting prettily on the top of her TV. It never lit up – or stayed lit – unless she had a voice message.
She flopped back on her bed and put the phone to her ear. "Hey, Rukia-chan!" came Hitsugaya's cheerful and amused drawl, "you left in such a hurry I forgot to tell you something else – we've got a national meeting the night after next, at the usual place and time, usual garb. Don't forget this time or it's my ass we're talking about. And while you might not give a fuck, I do, and therefore if you aren't there twenty minutes prior count yourself late. Got it? Good. See ya."
As she clicked off her phone, Rukia was tempted to just heave it and let it land in whatever godforsaken part of the room it wanted. It was just too much damn trouble, those elders were…if this turned out to be another pointless meeting about vampire etiquette, then she was definitely going to kill Hitsugaya later.
Rukia sighed, and let her body relax into the sheets. So soft, so inviting…
With the many candles flickering about in the darkness, without bothering to change her clothes, Rukia slowly fell off to sleep.
Kurosaki Ichigo was cursing his bad luck.
First of all, he'd ripped his hood open after tumbling out of the hood of a car, meaning he had to go and fix it. Second of all, he'd managed to place his little sister in danger, and, to top it all off, he hadn't even caught the fucking bloodsucker who took two pints of her blood!
"Ichi-nii," the small form whined, as she sat on the edge of the bed, "don't be like that. I was fine. There'll be others."
"I know, Karin, but I shouldn't have let the vamp take so much blood. I should have shot sooner, or maybe tried shooting with another gun first. Maybe-"
"Maybe you know that none of this could be helped, and the way everything turned out is just fine," Karin interrupted her big brother, sounding quite annoyed. "Ichi-nii, just be thankful no one was killed. You hunt vamps all the time. You can't expect that you'll get every single one of them."
"But it…you were the victim, Karin!"
"Only because I volunteered. I know what to do in the face of a vamp's will," she said. She cast a look at her surroundings. Currently in the medical ward of the hunter's underground base, she had just been given a glass of juice to offset the effects of blood loss, from what the vamp had drawn. And really, she was fine, though she just felt a little light-headed. She didn't know if that was from the blood loss or the aftereffects of her mind spell.
"Stupid vamp…I don't know how it got away from my gun…"
"Look, there's no use brooding about it. I'm fine."
"But it could've killed you! I saw it, you fell under its spell!"
"Well…" Karin frowned, "I have to admit, that vamp's control was something else. With all the others I was able to still keep a small part of my rational mind, to watch for your signals and everything, but this time…it was like I was totally asleep. Like I just couldn't do anything because the best thing would be to just stand there…" she trailed off. "The vamp didn't say anything, but if the spell had words, that would've been it."
Ichigo frowned. "But I've never seen that vamp before."
"Me neither. I didn't even know she was one until she was almost next to me; that's how much she was able to restrain her aura."
Ichigo shot his little sister a careful look. "You think she was a leader?"
"Who knows, Ichi-nii? Maybe."
And so, later that night, after his sister had been dismissed from the ward and caught a ride home with a friend, Ichigo sat in the den of the hunters' base, stewing over his thoughts. A possible high-ranking vampire right in front of him, and he'd missed his shot! It was infuriating! He'd trained for years just to be able to do this kind of stuff – he hadn't trained himself to miss.
"Hey baby…" a voice abruptly crooned in his ear, while a slim hand draped over his shoulder. "Why the long face? Didn't lose anybody tonight, did you?"
"Matsumoto, stop."
"Gee, you're never any fun," the woman pouted, plopping herself into a chair and folding her arms over her rather large bosom. "I just try to get your mind off things and I can see you're already setting up your defenses."
"Aren't you living with Ichimaru?"
"So?"
"So? He's your fucking boyfriend!"
She shrugged. "That's never any reason to stop having fun." Matsumoto smiled slyly at him, but when not even a caustic reply was thrown back, her face suddenly turned serious. "Hey. Really, Ichigo, what's the matter? I haven't heard about any casualties yet."
"No, no…nobody died."
She just raised an eyebrow inquiringly at him.
"It's just that…damn!" Ichigo stood up and mussed his hair. "Karin was victim tonight, and I didn't even kill the stupid bloodsucker that fed off her!"
"And that's all?" Matsumoto looked surprised.
"What do you mean, "and that's all?" Yes that's all! I'm supposed to protect my sisters; how the hell can I do that if I can't even catch a single fucking bloodsucker?"
Matsumoto sighed. "You see, that's what everyone loves about you, Ichigo," she said, a smile curling her lip, "you're just so protective over your property."
"My sisters are not my property!"
"Everyone just thinks that your devotion to them is cute," she shrugged, that smile still on her face. She got up and went to the fridge, pulling out a canister of water and taking a cup from the sink. "I don't think there's ever been a hunter who hunts with family on his mind, nevermind a hunter who's actually had family to protect. Most of us" – her eyes darkened momentarily – "have had their lives screwed by vamps, with no family to even consider…and so join the hunters as means for revenge."
She paused.
Ichigo just stared. What could he say?
Matsumoto drank her water in silence before replacing the canister and walking past him, towards the door. "Well, Ichigo," she turned to him with a smile, "whatever's bugging you tonight, just know that at least Karin is safe, Yuzu never ventures out, and your father is busy in the lab. All your family is still alive. If their safety worries you so much, what more could you ask for?"
And with those parting words, she swept out the door.
The scent of her shampoo had already faded before Ichigo got to his feet with a heartfelt sigh. The vamp was still on his mind. A few hours in Training wouldn't hurt; maybe it would even take his mind off his problems.
Rukia slept for eight hours straight, restless, waking around two o' clock in the afternoon when the sun was still bright in the sky. Many of her candles had long died out. There was really no valid reason for her to feel so agitated, but she was itchy to get out, to walk off some of the excess energy that was burning at her patience.
Her thoughts wandered as she rummaged around her closet for acceptable clothes to wear out during the day; however, that boy hunter was never far from them. She had found herself dreaming of Kaien last night, drowning in the horror of her past, back when she was weaker than the average human and could do no more about her fate than anyone else. It was the major reason why she hadn't slept well. Just thinking about him was enough to ruin her mood any time.
Finally she slipped out the door, dressed in jeans, a cotton shirt, and a wide-brimmed hat, wishing she could just fly as she usually did. Acting so totally human – and especially using the elevator to get down to the bottom floor – wasn't something she did often.
Her skin tingled as it met with the sunlight, but she continued on, undisturbed. It no longer bothered her. She had just walked several blocks to the subway station when someone called her name.
"Rukia?"
She turned. "Aa, Renji, is that you?"
The tall, relatively youthful-looking man sauntered up to her, hands stuffed in the pockets of his white hoodie. "What are you doing out? It's rare to see you during the day."
"I have every right to be out, but I was just going to ask you the same question," she replied, smirking. "But, you know, if we have a national meeting tonight, I'm surprised Hitsugaya isn't working you like a dog right now. He's just got put in charge of formal affairs, you know, so if something gets screwed it's now his fault."
"Yeah, the meeting...right...well, Hitsugaya-jiji knows that he can't boss me around," Renji boasted, as he fell in step beside Rukia, grinning. "So I took the day off. Big fucking deal. If he can't handle the trouble himself..." he chuckled, "well, it's his ass that's gonna be barbecued, not mine."
"Funny, Hitsugaya said almost the exact same thing."
"Where you going now?"
She shrugged and pulled her handbag up to her shoulder. "I don't know. I didn't really set out from my house with a destination in mind."
"Yeah, me neither. Wanna make a day of it together? I don't have anything to do til eight."
"Eight?" she asked, surprised. "Why eight? The meeting starts at the usual time."
"I know, but by then Hitsugaya-jiji should be freaking out and tripping all over himself like an idiot, 'cause of course there's always gonna be last-minute details that pop up that he's gonna have to fix." Renji grinned. "And it's showing up at eight that'll keep him from killing me on the spot, anyway."
"Hitsugaya? Kill you?" she laughed, "Renji, you aren't that expendable."
"You wouldn't know it from the last time Hitsugaya-jiji cursed me."
"Or actually, he really might kill you, if you ever call him 'Hitsugaya-jiji' again."
"Fucking Hitsugaya's been alive from before Jesus even had a name!"
"I know. But it's a sad shame," Rukia sighed in mock-pity, "you have one of the most prestigious elders, forever doomed to an eternal eleven years old." She caught Renji's eye and he burst out in sharp laughter, whereas she just smiled at her own wit as they continued along.
They boarded a subway headed to Shibuya after deciding to see a movie together, and perhaps do some window-shopping. It wasn't often each played human, so the experience of seeing things in normal human perspective, from the ground – and especially in daylight – was interesting, to say the least.
The only thing Rukia really hated about Shibuya was the crowds of teenagers that would gather and gawk at her, the more adventurous boys actually having the gall to approach her with cheesy pickup lines that she would have loved to kill them for.
But today was okay. Renji, tall, imposing, with his headband tied around ceremonial tattooes of a goth lover's dream, easily scared the skittish away from them. Boys who eyed Rukia didn't dare approach in fear of Renji.
Renji had been her friend for almost as long as she could remember, and (while his thick skull sometimes made him as impossible to talk to as a monkey) he stood up for her when she needed backup, he believed in what she thought, and they could argue and bicker like any true friends without repercussion.
There was a downside to that too – others, viewing the couple from a distance, had seen potential romance.
Rukia scoffed. Romance? With Renji? The thought was laughable.
They ended up seeing an American horror film, about a ghost and a ship, both laughing where everyone else screamed and making riotous comments to each other about the corniness of the "monster."
However, as it always does in fun, time passed them by very quickly. Soon it was eight, and Renji had to leave; and then it was ten, and time for her to get home; and then it was eleven-thirty, and it was time to her to get ready.
Looking around in her closet for a minute, she finally found what she was looking for - she hadn't brought it out in over two years – and laid it carefully on the bed.
She stood in front of her mirror to look at her reflection after donning the garb. In the traditional deep red of Japan's highest-ranked vampires, the robe was long, made of three separate panels and joined at the shoulders. There was no back to the robe; it had a cape hanging, to allow for the summoning and usage of wings. Twined golden rope around the waist secured in front, the gold crescent moon pin of vampire elite glimmering, and Rukia added her golden silk scarf as the final touch to her uniform.
After checking to make sure everything was in place, she jumped off her balcony and into the night. She flew high; it was still early, and people were still out and socializing. The meeting place was always scheduled in a ballroom in one of Ginza's extravagant hotels. If the meeting began at twelve, she had ten minutes.
The balcony door was open when she arrived, and some other vampires were mingling outside with cocktails in hand. All were dressed in a robe representing their country. As Rukia landed on the impressively grand balcony, a flurry of languages reached her ears - she could only discern English, Chinese, and something that sounded like Arabic before she was dragged inside.
"Rukia! I thought I told you to be here twenty minutes prior!" Hitsugaya hissed lowly to her as they approached the cocktail table. "I've got dignitaries from all over the fuckin' world and you show up just on time?"
"Well, do excuse me for being so punctual. I'll remember to be late next time," she replied, amused by his choice of words. "And, oh honored elder, what exactly is the point of this meeting tonight?"
"I can answer that one," a voice cut in, and both turned to the tall figure that approached the table. His striped wide-brimmed hat clashed horribly with the severe formality of his robes, looking woefully out of place. Urahara, however, seemed not to notice.
"If you don't mind, Hitsugaya-kun, could you do me a big favor and see to the Romanian representative? He does fear he's lost his coffin," Urahara sighed tragically, "and I'm certain that if someone doesn't see to poor Flavius Berdnikov-san's situation soon, he's in half a mind to stir up a bloodbath." He grinned. "Go on, shoo."
Hitsugaya didn't have a happy expression on his face, but he couldn't ignore the request. They watched his white head disappear into the crowd.
"Ah, Romanians," Urahara grinned, "they do rather adore the classics. Can't be helped, I suppose, with Transylvania being right there and all."
"All right, Urahara, you can say whatever you want, but just what is the point of this meeting tonight? There's so many more people here than usual."
"You just have to listen, watch, and wait, Rukia-san," Urahara replied, as he grabbed her a vodka martini and steered her into the crowd. "The meeting will begin in another minute to the hour, and it shan't be good to just dally around. Take a seat next to me?"
Rukia shrugged. "I suppose."
"Good, good. This way."
Rukia followed him without further question, even as the lights started to dim just slightly, and the rest of the vampires filed in from the balcony.
tsuzuku